


Everytime I ran, I ran to you

by Daughter_of_the_TARDIS



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Cute, Eventual Baby, F/M, Family, Fluff, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Secrets, Spencer is married, secret life, starts in season one, still not sure how to tag, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-07-22 10:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 27,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7433487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daughter_of_the_TARDIS/pseuds/Daughter_of_the_TARDIS
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dr. Spencer Reid of the Behavioral Analysis Unit has a completely different side to him that no one on his team had ever even guessed at.  But when they find out... needless to say, they're more than a little surprised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Suspect Behavior

The BAU team had just finished up their latest case, this time in Catonsville, Maryland. They were going to be flying back to Quantico in the morning, and had just settled back into their hotel rooms for the night. 

SSA Aaron Hotchner had just taken off his tie when there was a knock on his door. He opened it to see the team’s youngest member looking at him nervously. Dr. Spencer Reid gave his boss an awkward wave.

“Reid.” Hotch said. “What’s up?”

“I was just, ah, wondering what time the plane was leaving in the morning.” the younger man said nervously.

“I think we’re boarding around ten, why?” Hotch asked, and Reid looked at the floor quickly, before looking back at his boss.

“Ah, a friend of mine invited me to come over and visit…” he said, trailing off.

Hotch just smiled at the younger man. “Go on, Reid. Have fun. Just make sure to be at the airstrip before the plane leaves in the morning.” Hotch told him.

Reid’s face lit up in a grin as he turned and walked away. “Thanks, Hotch! I will.” He said happily.

* * *

 

Reid was still smiling as he walked up to the stage door, elbowing his way past some of the groupies that were hanging outside the door.

He tapped the security guard on the shoulder, making the 300 pound, muscular man look at him, a scowl already pasted on his face.

“Look, pal, you ain’t gettin’ in.” the security guard said, most likely having already told many people that.

He just gave the guard an awkward smile. “I’m, uh, I’m on the list.” Spencer said. “Dr Spencer, ah, Re- Dr. Spencer Reid.” he stammered. He had to stop partway through because someone had elbowed him in the ribs, but he managed to get enough of his breath back to wheeze his name out.

The man checked the list in his hands, flipping through the pages for a moment before finding it. He gave the young genius a smile and a nod as he opened up the door enough for him to slip through.

“Enjoy the show, sir.” he said.

* * *

 

_Several months later..._

SSA Derek Morgan was just returning to his desk in the bullpen after lunch when he noticed Reid was still there. He couldn’t help but laugh softly at the kid - half the time the team would have to remind him to do things like eat or go home and sleep because he would get so absorbed in paperwork or a case.

“Hey kid, did you eat?” Morgan asked, leaning on Reid’s desk.

Reid jumped in his seat, spinning away from the computer that he had been working at furtively. “Sorry, what?” he asked, and Morgan gave him a Look.

“Out with it, Kid. What’re you up to?” he asked, and Reid sighed. It was bad enough that he had jumped, but Reid was willingly working with his computer - that never happened. And even though the kid had only joined the team about eight months earlier, Morgan had connected with him quickly.

“I’m ordering flowers.” he admitted, and Morgan raised an eyebrow.

“For who?” he asked, intrigued.

“A friend of mine.” was the quick reply, and Morgan snorted.

“Kid, people don’t order flowers for people who are just friends.” he said.

“Well I do.” Reid said, turning back to his computer. Morgan just shook his head, smiling at the young genius, before going back to his work.

Once he was sure that Morgan was absorbed in his paperwork, Reid went back to his computer to finish placing his order.

* * *

_T_ _hat night……_

Good luck tonight, my crazy girl. Miss you.

Ari Ross smiled as she looked at the note attached to the flowers that she had received, before being interrupted by a knock on the door. There was no need for a name to tell her who they were from, the flowers themselves let her know.

She looked up as Cat stuck her head around the door. “Hey, kitten.” Cat said in greeting. “You ready to end this?” Cat crossed over to where Ari sat at her dressing room. “Damn, you look good.” she observed.

Ari flashed her friend a smile as she got out of the chair. “Thanks, so do you.”

It was true - for both of them. Cat was dressed in a sleeveless gray cropped turtleneck with ripped jeans, black buckled platform boots, and had a dark blue flannel tied around her waist. She had dog tags around her neck, like always, and her fuschia hair was in its usual short cut. Her tattoos stood out in the lights backstage, and her dark skin glowed.

Ari, on the other hand, was almost the complete opposite, as far as physical appearance was concerned. Her long, straight hair was dark brown, making the streaks of honey blonde in it stand out even more. She wore a Union Jack tank top over a lace bandeau, with ripped black skinny jeans and silver-studded black combat boots. She sat and absentmindedly played with the rings on her necklace as Cat did the finishing touches for their makeup.

“Alright, kitten.” Cat said once she was finished. “After tonight, we have one final show in Charlotte. Then we get to go home.”

Ari smiled at her best friend. The two of them had known each other since high school, and had started off the band not long after. Now they were about to finish off their second tour together.

“Let’s do this.” She said, and the women hugged before heading out to get on stage. They took their places, just as the lights began to go up, and Ari could feel the energy of the crowd beginning to affect her. Her face lit up as the spotlights hit her, and she risked a look at Cat, who was about ten feet to her left. The other woman smiled back, and nodded before starting up the opening to their first song of the night.

“Hey hey hey!” Ari shouted, waving her hand over her head as the crowd shouted and cheered. “All you people out here tonight, I’ve just got one question for you:”

She took a deep breath as Cat got to the end of the opening, and then she yelled, _“You listening? Are you listening?”_

The crowd went wild, and Ari smiled, exhilarated. This was what she lived for. The thrill, the rush that came from a live performance.

_"Your eyes are closed, you’re asleep and are you dreaming?”_


	2. Wake-Up Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first member of the team learns about Spencer Reid's secret other half...

* * *

 

> The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn't one. - Margaret Atwood

* * *

 

They had just finished up yet another tough case, and were on the plane back home to Quantico. Even though it was barely seven at night, most of the team was asleep, since they had been up for at least forty-eight hours straight while trying to find a missing child. Eventually they found her - thank everything for that.

_Beep. Beep._

Reid’s phone went off, but the young genius didn’t even notice.

He was fast asleep.

* * *

 

It was a very groggy team that walked off of the plane two hours later. Dr. Spencer Reid yawned slightly before turning to look at the man who had quickly became one of his closest friends.

“Hey Morgan, you’re sleeping at my place, right?”

Derek Morgan nodded. “Yeah, my place’s still being fumigated.” he answered.

“Okay, cool.” the young genius said, and that was the last thing either one of them said until they got to Reid’s apartment building.

The rest of the team was too tired to puzzle over Reid’s choice of words.

* * *

 

Nelson Stone looked up from behind the desk as the door of the apartment building opened. The elderly doorman smiled at the familiar face that walked in - but paused when he saw the rather large man following behind him.

“Evenin’, Dr. Reid.” Stone said, continuing to look at the tall black man suspiciously. “Who’s yer friend?”

“Oh, uh, hi Mr. Stone.” Dr. Reid said, giving one of his awkward little waves. “This is Derek Morgan. We work together, he’s just staying for a night or two while his apartment is being fumigated.”

The doorman smiled at that, relaxing as he learned that the other man wasn’t any kind of threat. Not that he was being racist, it was just that Nelson Stone was very overprotective of any of the people who lived in his building - like the young Dr. and Mrs. Reid. And speaking of Mrs. Reid…

Nelson Stone stopped Spencer and Morgan right before they got into the rickety old elevator.

“Dr. Reid, I almost forgot!” he said quickly. However, as soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them. Because it wasn’t very often that he got to have a laugh at someone else’s expense, and the look on Dr. Reid’s face when he found out…

“What is it, Mr. Stone?” the young genius asked, crossing back over to the front desk.

But the older man just smiled at him. “How many times have I told you, boy?” Stone said, pretending to scold the other man. “Call me Nelson.”

Dr. Reid just looked confused, but he smiled anyway. “Alright then… Nelson.” he said, and a small smile quirked on his face.

* * *

 

Morgan waited a moment as Reid fumbled with the keys to his door. Then he noticed the confused look on the kid's face.

“What's up, Pretty Boy?” Morgan asked.

“The door was already unlocked.” Reid said quietly. He carefully unlocked the door - having accidentally locked it the first time - and looked at his teammate. Morgan had a grim look on his face. Both of the men were now awake - maybe not completely, but more so than they were before.

With practiced ease, the two men drew their weapons and entered the dark apartment, checking each room in turn.

Reid checked the master bedroom and the hall closet before going to check the kitchen.

It was only when Reid saw the empty carton of teaberry ice cream sitting on the kitchen counter that he finally put two and two together.

* * *

 

_Morgan’s P.O.V._

I had just gone into the living room to clear it when two things happened:

I heard Reid start racing towards me, yelling, “Morgan, stop!”

And a groggy voice spoke from the couch. “Babe, 's that you?”

I spun around quickly, instinctively aiming my gun in the direction of the voice. That was when Reid burst into the room, his gun still in his hands.

"Morgan, drop your gun, now." he ordered. His voice was cold and had a deadly edge to it. I did as he said, but only because he was freaking me out too much for me to do anything but listen to him.

As soon as my gun was away, the kid was running for the couch. He practically collapsed on it, and that was when I was finally able to fully make out the outline of a person on the couch. "

You gave me a damn heart attack." he scolded gently, as he ran a hand through the other person's hair. They hummed sleepily in response, trying to sit up.

"Wha's goin' on, Spen?" they asked as they reached up and turned on a lamp sitting on the end table next to them.

My mouth dropped open in surprise when I saw the person that Reid was still clinging onto for dear life.

She was probably gorgeous, but at the moment she was still being smothered by a skinny genius so I couldn't exactly see her face. In fact, all I could see was her legs covered in a black blanket, and a bit of dark brown hair - so dark it was almost black - that had managed to sneak its way out from under the kid.

“Spencer Reid, let me up right now!” the woman said, trying to sound stern.

“No.” Reid said, sounding more stubborn than I had ever heard him. “Not until you promise to stop leaving the door unlocked.”

“Oh really?” she said. “And how are you gonna make me promise that, hmm?”

This was something I had definitely not been expecting from our boy genius. And it was also definitely something I wasn't planning on watching.

“Hey kid.” I said, making Reid jump. He looked over his shoulder at me, and I almost burst out laughing at how red his cheeks were.

“Who’re you?” the girl asked, finally sitting up right.

Now that I could see her fully, I knew that I had been right. This girl was _smokin_ ’. She had dark eyes - that were still halfway closed from sleep - and brown-almost-black hair that went halfway down her arms. She wore a black tank top, and when she pushed the blanket off of her, I saw the black-and-pink plaid pj shorts she had on. The strangest thing about her, though, was her tattoos. She had a row of colorful flowers tattooed on each arm, which I definitely wasn’t expecting from anyone who knew Reid.

"I’m Derek.” I said, holstering my weapon. “Who’re you?”

The girl looked at Reid nervously for a moment, and they seemed to have a silent conversation before she turned back to look at me.

“I’m Ariel.” she said nervously. “Ariel Reid.”

I crossed my arms, slightly confused. “Okay…?” I said, wondering if she was the kid’s sister, or… but that didn’t make sense, considering how she had reacted to him…

“Morgan, Ariel’s my wife…” Reid said, trailing off.

* * *

 

> It's the unexpected that changes our lives. - Unknown

* * *

 

 

**Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morgan meets the rest of Spencer and Ariel's gang.

Derek Morgan’s P.O.V.

“Hold up, man.” I said, totally lost. “I’m sorry, she’s your what now?”

Both of them looking at me - Reid was concerned, and Ariel looked like she was trying not to laugh.

“I’m Spencer’s wife, Derek.” Ariel said as she walked out of the room. A moment later, I heard clanking and rattling sounds that suggested that she was in the kitchen. “I’m guessing that he never mentioned he was married?” she called.

“Yeah, that he did not.” I said, following Reid into the kitchen. I knew that I probably should've been mad at the kid for keeping this from the team, but at the moment I was really too shocked to be mad. Besides, Reid hadn't really been on the team all that long yet - maybe he just didn't think he knew us well enough yet. 

Ariel was rummaging around in the cabinets, and pulled out three shot glasses before heading over to the fridge and pulling out a bottle.

My eyebrows shot up when I saw this tiny little speck of a girl pull out this big ass bottle of whiskey and pour three glasses of it. My surprise only grew when the kid grabbed his glass and threw it back like a pro.

“Tough case, babe?” Ariel asked as she downed her glass as well. Spencer just nodded as he refilled his glass.

“Definitely.” he said, then pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. “I’m just glad you’re back.”

“Were you travelling?” I asked, and Ariel nodded. 

“Yeah. For the last six months or so, actually.” she said, then smirked. “Although I’m sure that Spence could give you the exact number of days.”

“Six months, three days, nineteen hours, and thirty-one minutes.” was all that Reid would say, and we both laughed as he blushed. 

“So why were you traveling for so long?” I asked.

8888

Ariel’s P.O.V.

This was the part that I was most nervous about. Spencer and I had been talking about this for ages - what we should do when his team found out about me. To be honest, I don’t think that either of us pictured it happening like this.

“I work in the music industry.” I said carefully. “I was out in LA for a while, and then I was going city-to-city with one of the bands that I work with.”

“That’s pretty impressive.” Morgan said, and I nearly sighed in relief as he accepted the story without question.

“Thanks.” I said, smiling at him before downing the rest of my drink. “So tell me about the rest of this case.”

8888

Spencer’s P.O.V.

The next day I drove Morgan back to the BAU since he had never gone back to pick up his car, and we talked some more about the night before.

“So how long have you two been…” Morgan trailed off. 

“Married?” I asked, trying not to laugh. In the short amount of time that I had known Morgan, I had seen him go through many girlfriends, but the man still couldn’t say the word ‘marriage’. It was rather amusing, to say the least.

“About three years now. We were dating for four years before that.” I admitted, then I remembered what my wife had told me before we left this morning. “By the way, Ariel wants to know if you wanted to come over for dinner tonight. A couple of our other friends are coming over, too - you don’t have to if you don’t want to, I just thought that since now you know about my cantautore -” I was rambling now, and I knew it, I just couldn’t figure out how to stop myself.

“Reid, man,” Morgan laughed, cutting me off. “Sure, I’ll come.”

“Great.” I said, as I pulled into a parking space. Then, as we got out of the car, I remembered something. “Hey, Morgan?” I said nervously.

“What’s up kid?”

“Just… don’t tell the team, okay? About Ariel, I mean.” I stuttered.

Morgan stopped and looked at me, confused. “Why?” he asked. “If I was married to her, man, I’d never stop talking about her.”

I just shrugged. “That’s not how we work.” I said. “We’re really private people. Plus, I'm always worried that if an UnSub ever found out about her...” And while I didn’t say it out loud, what I was thinking was, And we really don’t want Garcia to start doing background checks on Ariel. Who knows what she might end up finding out.

“Alright, pretty boy.” Morgan said. “I can’t pretend like I understand it, but I can agree to it.”

8888

Luckily, we didn’t get a single case that day, so I was able to head back home at around five o’clock that night. Morgan had said that he would be coming over around six, and I knew that the rest of our guests - although they were more like extended family - were most likely already at our apartment. 

When I heard the music blaring from our apartment halfway down the hall, I knew I was right. I opened the door and was immediately assaulted by the smell of lasagna and the sounds of guitars. I walked into the living room to be greeted by Kat - although I was going to have to remember to call her Katerina whenever Morgan got here. She jumped up and pulled me into a hug, making me laugh. 

I had actually met Kat before I had met Ari, and it was Kat who had been partially responsible for us getting together in the first place. 

“Hey little kitten.” I teased, laughing. Of course, that just made her glare at me, which made me laugh even harder. She smacked my shoulder, and I winced slightly. 

“What's up, Spencer?” she asked as she let me go. “How's it going hunting down the big bad killers?”

“Its good.” I told her. “Actually, one of my teammates is coming over tonight for dinner.”

Kat raised her eyebrows at me. “Really? So you finally told your team about your other half, hmm?”

Ariel laughed as she came into the room. “Not exactly, Kat.” Ari said. “It was honestly much more entertaining than that.”

I went over and wrapped my arms around her waist, planting a kiss on her cheek as I stole a piece of garlic bread off of the plate she was carrying. 

“Spencer!” she laughed as I took a big bite out of it. “Come on now, cut it out!”

“So? What happened, lovebirds?” Kat asked us. Ari rolled her eyes.

“Killer,” Ariel began, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the pet name she insisted on using, “Brought his coworker home with him last night, but forgot that we had gotten back the night before. Long story short, I got woken up by some muscle bound moron pointing a gun at my head.”

“Hey now.” I heard Morgan say from the doorway, “At least I’m a sexy moron.”

Ariel and I laughed at that one, and Kat looked around us to give Morgan a quick once over. “I don’t know.” she said. “I think the jury’s still out on that one.”

“Damn, girl.” Morgan responded, making his way over to the table. “That hurts. That hurts right here.” he pointed to his heart, making us all laugh even harder. 

“Right.” Ariel said once we had all caught our breath. “Dinner’s ready. Kat, can you get the lasagna out while I wake the sleeping beasts?”

“Sure.” Kat said, grinning. “I’ll do anything as long as I don’t have to wake them up.” 

I kissed Ari on the cheek one last time before letting her go, but called her back when she was halfway out of the room. “Here,” I told her, picking a pitcher of ice water off of the table. “You’re going to need this.”

My wife gave me a devilish grin as she took the pitcher from me. “Thanks lover boy.”

I couldn’t help but watch her hips as she left the room, and judging by Morgan’s muffled laughter, he noticed. I gave him a fake glare, and he put his hands in the air. “Hey, kid, I’m not blaming you for that in the least - although I did not expect to ever see Dr. Spencer Reid checking out a lady. But damn, that girl is one tough mama.”

“You have no idea.” I said.

8888

Kat, Morgan and I were sitting at the table - which was really three card tables put end-to-end - when we heard screaming and cursing coming from the spare bedroom. Morgan went to jump out of his seat like he was about to run down the hall and see what was going on, but he stopped when we just busted out laughing.

Luckily, Morgan didn’t even have to ask us what was going on because a second later, Gabe, Lee, and Finn came walking into the kitchen, and all of them were soaking wet. Ariel followed along behind them with an emptied pitcher and a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin.

“Damnit Reid, can’t you keep a leash on your girl?” Gabe asked as he shook himself dry like a big puppy. Gabriel Geissler was a tall, buff black-haired guy with more tattoos than he could count and a heart of gold. Every inch of his skin was inked except for his face, and he was currently shirtless, since he was using his shirt to try and dry the rest of himself off.

“Like that would stop her.” Finn snorted. Finn was Gabe’s complete opposite, the clean-shaven ‘good guy’ of the group. He ran his hands over his face and through his hair, before spinning around and picking Ariel up by the waist.

“Put me down you big ape!” My wife shouted, even though anything anywhere close to threatening about her was canceled out by her giggles.

Then there was Lee, who just threw himself down in a chair. “Who're you?” he asked Morgan, already filling his plate full of food. 

“Rude!” Kat said, smacking him upside the head. Lee responded with a middle finger salute, which earned him another smack from Ariel for his troubles.

“Hey, ladies!” the small Chinese man said, pretending to be angry. “Keep your hands to yourself - unless you wanna take this party to the bedroom.”

Kat laughed. “Yeah, sure - or we could take this outside and I'll kick your lazy butt.” 

Morgan was looking kind of lost, and honestly I couldn't blame him. Our whole group could be a bit hard to handle. 

“Sorry, Morgan.” I told him. “This is Katerina Simmons, Gabriel Geissler, Finn Ryan, and Lee Voss. Guys, this is Derek Morgan, he works with me at the Bureau.”

“Hey man.” Gabe said. “Welcome to the crazy train.” 

Morgan laughed, and I felt a bit of the tension ease out of me now that I knew that the they would get along.

That’s when things almost went wrong. “So does he know about Ari-” Lee cut himself off with a wince, and judging by the vicious look that Kat was aiming at him, I guessed that she had just kicked him under the table.

“Yes!” I said frantically. “Yes, he knows that Ariel and I are married.”

Morgan looked confused for a minute or so, but shook it off. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, how do you know each other?” he asked. “Pretty boy here’s never mentioned any of you…”

I blushed as Morgan’s nickname earned a round of laughter from everyone at the table. 

“Pretty boy?” Kat snorted. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

“Well I think he’s a very pretty boy.” Ariel said suggestively, and there was a moment of complete silence while my face turned bright red, before the room exploded with laughter.

“Okay, so you want to know how we all met.” Kat said. “Well, the story starts in high school - at least for us. Spencer was already in college by then…”


	4. How they met

“Okay, so you want to know how we all met.” Kat said. “Well, the story starts in high school - at least for us. Spencer was already in college by then…”

 

1994

Pasadena, California

Katerina Simmons was fourteen years old and looking for trouble. Practically raised on the streets, she had perfected the ‘mess-with-me-and-I’ll-mess-you-up” look young, and used that skill to her advantage, especially at this time of night. 

It was around eleven thirty at night, and Katerina was finally heading home for the night, listening to Nirvana on her beat-up old Walkman that she had gotten cheap at a Goodwill.

The sounds of Kurt Cobain singing about social injustices and guns were suddenly drowned out by the sound of a kid yelling.

“Leave me alone, Chris! I didn’t do anything to you, please!”

Katerina pulled her headphones off and started to follow the voices. Eventually she ended up going down a back alley and stumbling upon a sight that made her blood boil.

Three larger kids - she would guess at least college age, judging from the smell of cheap beer and their sense of superiority alone - had backed a scrawny little kid that looked to be around her age into the alleyway. One of them - whom she was guessing was Chris - was holding the kid up off of the ground by the collar, and punched the kid in the face, hard, while she watched. The kid’s head snapped back before he got himself back under control and lifted his head once more to look at the kid.

“That was for telling Professor Fitz about the paper that you wrote for me.” he sneered.

The guy was rearing back to deliver another punch when Katerina decided that she had had enough. She had spent her life this far being picked on by her older siblings - all eight of them - and had quickly grown tired of it. So she wasn’t even thinking of standing there idly.

“Hey!” she called out, pulling the gun that she kept in her waistband. People called it overkill, but it had saved her life on more than one occasion in the middle of the night. “Leave him alone!” she called out, trying to sound much older and much more intimidating than she actually was.

“Or what?” the biggest one asked, moving closer.

Katerina pulled back the hammer on the gun, smirking slightly as all four of the boys flinched when they heard the satisfying click of the gun. “Or I’ll kill you now.” she said bluntly. “This is my turf, and I don’t appreciate other people on it.”

All three of the bigger guys seemed nearly frozen with fear - apparently they weren’t used to being threatened instead of doing the threatening. 

“Now move!” Katerina yelled, and they all went running. Except for the scrawny kid, that is.

“I thought I said to move.” she said, hoping that he would listen. All it took was one person blabbing for her to lose any cred she may have on the streets.

“You’re not going to shoot me.” the kid said, pushing his glasses further up on his nose. “If you were, you would’ve done it already.” he said, and with that, she stepped out of the shadows she had been hiding in. She cherished the momentary shock on the kid’s face, then nodded.

“You’re right.” she said, pulling the Nerf darts out of her weapon. “Besides, its not even a real gun.”

The kid laughed softly at that. “Thanks for saving me.” he told her softly. “I’m Spencer, by the way. Spencer Reid.” he gave a little wave, and she smiled at him, tucking the Nerf gun back into her waistband.

“I’m Katerina.” she said. “Did they say that you wrote a paper for them?” she asked. Spencer nodded.

“But you’re like fourteen.” she said.

“Thirteen, actually. And I’m doing better in the class than they are.” he admitted. 

8888

“Hold up.” Morgan said, cutting Kat off in her telling the story. He looked around the table, raising an eyebrow at all of them. “Are you guys messing with me?” he asked them.

Kat looked confused. “No, why?” she asked. 

“So you seriously went into a dark alley against 3 bigger guys with a Nerf gun?” Morgan asked, incredulous. 

“Yup.” Kat said, looking pretty pleased with herself. 

Gabe snorted. “You should've seen her in Harlem.” he said through a mouthful of pasta. “Now that was insane.”

“Oh god.” I said, rolling my eyes. “What happened this time?” 

“A couple of… guys… got a bit out of hand.” Ariel explained as we made our way into the living room with some drinks to hang out. “So Kat simply showed them the error of their ways.”

I looked at her in surprise. “Why didn't you tell me?” I asked worriedly. “Are you okay?” 

Ariel gave me a smile as she squeezed my hand and slid next to me on the couch. “Because I knew you'd freak out. And besides, Miss Ninja over here had it all under control. We didn't even have to call in the big guns.” she teased.

I relaxed slightly upon hearing that, but wasn't fully convinced until Finn spoke up. “Yeah, Spencer, don't worry about it. Trust me, you should be more concerned about what happened to those morons.”

“I’m not really sure that I want to know.” I muttered, which started another round of laughter. 

“So that’s how you met Katerina.” Morgan said. I had noticed that he had picked up on the ‘nickname rule’ quickly - only people who had known Kat for a long time were allowed to call her that. “But what about the rest of you guys?”

“Well,” I started, “I met they guys at the same time that Kat and Ariel did. Kat introduced me to Ariel when I was tutoring her - someone needed help with Trigonometry.”

My wife shot me a fake glare as she punched my shoulder lightly. “You’re never gonna let that one go, are you?”

 

“Nope.” I said, flashing her a grin.

“So does anyone else on the team know? About Ariel, I mean.” Morgan asked me.

I nodded. “Hotch does, but only on paper. She’s listed as my next-of-kin in my files. They’ve never actually met, though.”

Morgan just nodded, accepting my explanation before quickly being drawn into a conversation about football by Gabe. The rest of the night passed quickly, with everyone going home around eleven. 

Once everyone had left, Ariel and I just curled up on the couch, watching the New Doctor Who episodes that I had recorded while she was gone.

The Doctor had just comandeered Charles Dickens’ carriage to go and save Rose Tyler when Ariel turned to me. “I think it went well tonight.” she said softly.

I just nodded, too engrossed in the show to be really paying that much attention.

“So when do I get to meet the rest of your team?” she asked me, and it took me a second to realize what she had asked me. 

“I thought you wanted to keep our life separate from the BAU?” I asked her. She just looked at me and shrugged.

“Yeah, but then tonight I noticed that Morgan kept looking at you strangely, like he wasn’t used to seeing you so relaxed. I feel bad that you have to hide a part of who you are at your job. So I think that we should actually introduce them to our insanity, y’know?”

I studied her for a second, to make sure that she was being serious. “Alright.” I finally agreed. “I’ll introduce you to them.


	5. Amelia

A/N~ Warning for mentions of suicide. If you are sensitive to this topic, please skip this chapter.

It was about a week later when Reid didn't show up to work. The entire team was worried as they gathered in the conference room, but Hotch assured them that nothing was wrong.

“Reid called in earlier, said he needed to take a personal day. Since he has so much vacation time saved up, I saw no problem with it.” Hotch explained. 

JJ shrugged, before proceeding to present the case. “Three women in San Diego have been sexually assaulted and then strangled over the past four months…”

8888

Ariel came out of their bedroom that morning without even bothering to get showered or anything. Spencer should already have been at work, and this was the one day of the year where she allowed herself to be a lazy and depressed little girl.

“Morning.” 

Ariel jumped a bit before she realized it was just her husband. “Spence!” she scolded. “You scared me.”

“Sorry.” he said. “Coffee?”

“Yes please.” she said, and Spencer handed her a cup of perfectly prepared coffee. “You   
are forgiven for scaring me.” 

“Oh, well thank you for that.” he responded sarcastically. 

“I thought you had a case.” Ariel said after taking a sip of her coffee.

“I did.” he admitted. “But I stayed home because of today.”

“Oh yeah?” Ariel asked her husband, trying to play innocent. “What's today?”

Spencer just gave her a look. “You know what today is.” he chided gently.

8888

Ariel’s P.O.V.

I gave up the act quickly, putting down my mug to go and be comforted by my husband. It had been six years to the day now. Spencer was with me that night when I had come home to find Amelia’s body. My sister had committed suicide that night by slitting her wrists. 

I had never really been able to forgive myself for not paying enough attention to have seen what was going on. 

“Ariel,” Spencer said gently as he wrapped his arms around me. “There was nothing you could have done.”

I spun to face him. “How can you say that?” I asked him. “Of course I could have done something!”

“No you couldn’t have. Amy had depression, Ari.” he said gently. “Only half of Americans that know that they are having a major depressive episode get treatment, and even then they don’t really get better, they only learn how to manage it. And Amy didn’t know - or if she did know she never told anyone.”

“So what am I supposed to do?” I yelled. “Just ignore it? Go on with my life and pretend that she never existed?” 

“Of course not.” Spencer said as he grabbed my wrists, pulling me to him. “You’re supposed to write.”

I stopped, confused. “What?”

“I know you, Ariel.” Spencer said gently. “Better than anyone - except maybe Kat. That’s what you do when you don’t know how to deal with the world anymore. You write until it makes sense again.”

Then he gently guided me to the table, where he had already set up a notebook and pencils for me, and he pushed me into a seat. “So go ahead and do what you do, okay?” he said. “I’m going to go to the store - we’re almost out of milk. And… if you want, when I get home… we can talk.”

I smiled up at my husband, trying not to cry. “Yeah.” I said softly. “That sounds good.”

8888

Reid’s P.O.V.

It took me about two hours to finish shopping - we needed a lot more than just milk - and by the time that I got back to our apartment, almost three hours had passed.

But as I got out of the elevator on our floor, I felt happier than I had all week. Because already I could hear the faint sounds of guitar chords coming from our apartment. 

I unlocked the door - and then unlocked it again, since I had accidentally locked it - and went inside, trying to make as little noise as possible so I didn’t end up accidentally interrupting Ari.

“And you will always be perfect  
You'll always be beautiful  
Our hearts, will never forget you  
You didn't belong here  
And it's become so clear why heaven called your name

And it just doesn't seem right, was it really your time?  
Are we dreaming?  
We'll never let go of you  
Wish you were here, but it's becoming clear  
That Earth's just not the place for an angel like you

And now we, must let you move forward  
Our love lies with you  
Our souls fly with you, Amelia”

She finished by letting the guitar chords just trail off, and when she looked up I noticed that she had been crying a lot. I still pretended not to notice, though, because Ariel always hated to appear weak. 

“You’ve been thinking that one up for awhile, haven’t you?” I asked her as I put the groceries away.

She didn’t respond, and I just kept putting things away until I felt arms wrap around my waist, making me jump. 

“Yeah.” Ariel said, laying her head in between my shoulder blades. “I have.”

“It sounds great, Ari. Amy would have loved it.” I told her honestly, spinning around so that I could hold her properly. As I took in the sight of my wife, I thought back to the other night when Morgan had come over for dinner. I remembered how confused he had looked when he first met Ariel - and then even more confused when he met all of our friends. I could see why he was confused, honestly.

I tended to try and stay far away from the spotlight at work, but with my friends I tended to get right in the thick of things. And then there was just the obvious differences in interests, which were noticeable even just by looking at our clothing. But we made it work, and I was so happy that Morgan had seemed to accept it with little to no problems.

Hopefully the rest of my team would be as understanding… but just in case, I decided to try and keep the two parts of my life from intersecting for as long as possible.

With that figured out, I turned my attention back to what I had planned for the day - keeping my wife from wallowing in guilt and grief for as long as possible.

A/N~ So the song in this chapter is called “Amelia,” by Tonight Alive. I do not own the song, or anything else except for the plot and the members of Undiscovered Nemesis.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of The Fisher King arch, as well as a chance to get to learn more about Ariel and Spencer's relationship.

Ariel’s P.O.V.

I had just finished packing when my husband came into the apartment and nearly swept me off of my feet.

I laughed as he picked me up in a hug, spinning me around. “Someone’s excited.” I teased.

He nodded. “Two weeks of nothing but sun, the strip, and you.” he mumbled into my hair. 

“Even though you’ve been banned from most of the casinos in Vegas?” I asked him, raising an eyebrow. 

Spencer sighed, rolling his eyes, and I giggled. I just couldn’t help it - we were both so excited. We had planned a week in Vegas - where Spencer grew up - and then another week in Pasadena - where I grew up - with no interruptions from either of our jobs, unless the end of the world occurred. Kat had left a week or so ago, so we were going to meet up with her in Pasadena, and then we would all fly back together.

Which, given our luck, would most likely happen. 

8888

Roughly seven hours later, we were touching down in Las Vegas, and Spencer and I shared an excited smile as we got off of the plane. 

“Ready?” Spencer asked me, and I winked at him.

“I think that the right question is: is Vegas ready for us?” I asked, and he laughed. 

I reveled in the lightness that he had. Most of the time he seemed almost weighed down by all of the evil that his job exposed him to, making my husband appear older than he actually was. But now, under the neon lights that lined the Vegas streets, he looked as carefree as anyone else our age - even if his tan button-down shirt and red striped sweater vest made him look more like a teacher’s assistant than an FBI agent.

I rested my head on his shoulder as we waited for our bags to come out. “Are you excited to see her?” I asked, and I felt him nod in response. 

“Yeah. I'm actually a bit nervous.” he admitted. “This will be the first time since we moved out to Virginia that I’m going to see her.”

I lifted my head long enough to give him a look. “What are you talking about, ‘I’? You want me to come with you, don’t you?” I asked. I was confused - and honestly hoping that we weren’t about to have a repeat of the same argument that we always had when it came to his mother. I had known about Diana’s illness since we were seventeen and he showed up at my parents’ house at three in the morning in the middle of a thunderstorm because his mom had been having an episode and wouldn’t let him into the house.

“Of course I do.” Spencer said, quick to reassure me. “I just wasn’t sure if you wanted to come…”

I had to wait to answer him while he went to wave down a cab. After we had gotten our suitcases loaded in the back and were on our way to the hotel, though, I picked up the conversation.

“Spencer, I’m coming with you.” I told him firmly. “There’s no way I’m letting you do this alone.”

He smiled at me before pressing a quick kiss to my lips. “I love you.” he said softly.

“I love you too.” I told him.

8888

The next morning we were up bright and early to go to Bennington. It took us all of five minutes to get dressed - Spencer in a dark short-sleeved polo shirt and khakis, and me in shorts and a pale green button down, with the sleeves rolled so that they hid my tattoos.

As soon as we got to Bennington, one of the doctors was coming over to us.

“I heard a rumor that you were here.” she said.

I turned to shake her hand, but Spencer couldn’t take his eyes off of Diana.

“How’s she doing?” he asked, sounding like he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer.

“Schizophrenia is a lifetime illness.” the doctor told us, and I nodded - I remembered when they had explained it to us the first time. “The meds stabilize the worst of her symptoms, but she still has bad days. What makes her most happy are her journals, and your daily letters.”

I squeezed Spencer’s hand when she said that, smiling at him. “See? I told you that those were a good idea.” I teased.

Spencer spared a moment to give me a teasing glare, before turning back to the doctor. 

“She is exceptionally proud of you.” the doctor added, and I felt Spencer stiffen.

“She is?” he asked incredulously. 

“Of course she is, you moron.” I teased, bumping him lightly with my shoulder. “Why wouldn’t she be?”

He just shrugged.

“Talks about you all the time, to anyone who will listen.” she told us. “Staff, other patients. Her journals are filled with the cases you write her about.” she laughed softly. “Calls them your adventures.”

“Diana always did believe that adventure is all around you - as long as you know where to look.” I said nostalgically. I remembered her telling me that on one of her better days.

“That’s what happens when you’re a professor of fifteenth century literature.” Spencer said, smiling softly.

“She’s going to be so excited that you were finally able to get here in person.” the doctor said.

I felt Spencer’s hand tense up in mine, and I didn’t even have to look up at him to know that he was frowning.

“Maybe it’s better if we just let her rest for today…” he mumbled, and both the doctor and I looked at him, confused.

“Rest?” I asked him. “Why on earth would we do that?” The doctor looked about as mystified as I was. 

“Yeah.” Spencer said. “We’ll come back tomorrow.”

He went to leave the hospital, nearly yanking my arm out of its socket as he dragged me with him, before turning back around and dragging me right back to the doctor.

“But, doctor - can you give this to her?” he asked, handing her a book. “It’s Margery Kempe - her favorite.”

“Babe, we should really -” I started, but Spencer was dragging me back out before I could say anything more.

By the time we got outside of Bennington’s front doors, I had had enough. “What the hell was that?” I asked him, yanking my hand out of his.

“What was what?” he asked me.

“That shit that you pulled inside. Spencer, what is going on? You were so excited to come and see your mom, and now you don’t want to anymore?” I asked him. “Is that it? You don’t want to see her?”

By this point, we were starting to draw strange looks from the other people who were coming to visit.

“Ariel, can you keep your voice down please?” Spencer asked me urgently. He hated making a scene.

I, on the other hand, didn’t mind it as much. “No, actually, I can’t. Not until you tell me what’s going on.”

Reid sighed, running a hand through his hair before answering. “I just… I don’t want to see her like that - especially if she’s having a bad day.”

My anger melted away almost immediately - although there was still a little part of me that was irritated that I had had to wake up at six that morning to not even see the person that we were getting up to see.

“Alright, Spencer.” I agreed, kissing his cheek. “We’ll put off seeing Diana until tomorrow. But not a day more, got it?”

“Yes ma’am.” my husband sassed, and I threw my head back as I laughed.

“So what are we going to do for the rest of the day, hmm?” I asked as Spencer and I walked away from Bennington and back towards where we had parked our rental car.

“I have a few ideas…” Spencer mumbled, and I grinned slightly. That grin grew, though, when I looked up and saw how red he was blushing.

“Alright then.” I said, trying to keep myself from giggling at how adorable he looked. “Lead the way.”

8888

The next day we got to Bennington a bit later than the day before, so we hurried past the nurses station before the nurse on duty called us back. 

“Dr. Reid! Wait!” she called out. 

Spencer stopped, but he had to pull me back to meet the nurse. I was determined to get to see Diana today, whether he liked it or not. I’d go without him if necessary.

“Someone delivered this to the desk last night for you.” the nurse said, handing my husband a small package.

“What? Who would’ve known that you were here?” I asked Spencer.

“I have no idea.” he said honestly, and I smirked.

“Well you don’t hear that one very often.” I teased, and Spencer gave me a fake glare before turning his attention back to the package. He flipped it over in his hands, examining both sides of the package before opening it. 

He looked at me in confusion after he pulled a smaller envelope out of the original one.

“Hey, don’t look at me babe.” I told him. “I only send you things while I’m gone, and if I was going to send something here, I would have addressed it to Diana.”

He nodded, but still looked puzzled. “Then who…?” he trailed off as he opened the envelope and let a key fall out and into his palm. He turned it over in his hands for a second, before pulling a note out of the envelope.

I came up next to him to look at the note - I would have read it over his shoulder but already knew I was too short to make that work.

She will die unless you save her, Dr. Reid. The note read. Call Gideon. He knows.

We both stared at the note for a moment, utterly lost. Then I sighed.

“I guess this means that you’re going back, aren’t you?” I asked. I didn’t even have to say where he was going - it was obvious.

Spencer nodded, kissing my forehead softly. “I’m sorry, Ari-bear.” he said, using his stupid nickname for me (I still loved it, no matter how much I pretended otherwise). 

“It’s okay, Spence.” I told him. “Duty calls.” And I really was okay. He and I had both known that our schedules would wreak havoc on our personal lives, but we didn’t care. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

He turned to leave the hospital, but was only a few steps away when I stopped him. “I’m not coming with you.” I said.

“What?” Spencer asked, turning to look at me.

“I’m staying here.” I said. “It seems to me like whoever sent you that package is trying to make this personal, so I’m going to try my best to stay out of it.” I explained. “Besides, I haven’t visited Diana in ages. And this will give me a chance to go and play in the casinos without having to leave you behind.” I finished, trying to make it seem as much like a joke as possible. I think something in my voice gave me away though, because Spence immediately crossed over to me and pulled me into a big bear hug.

“Be careful.” he said softly, and I smiled at him. 

“Now where’s the fun in that?” I asked him. “Besides, I hear that Ari Ross is in town for a bit. Who knows, maybe I’ll run into her.”

Spencer smirked, chuckling under his breath. “Alright.” he said. “Have fun, okay?” Then he kissed me one last time before heading for the door. 

I watched until he was out of sight, and then turned around and headed for the common area where most of the patients gathered. I figured that I would spend a few hours with Diana before making my way to the strip.

But first… 

I pulled out my phone and hit 2 on speed dial. It only took a few seconds for Kat to answer.

“Hey chicadee, what’s up?” she asked.

“Pack yourself a bag.” I told her. “I think its time for the city that never sleeps to get a visit from Undiscovered Nemesis.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to update this story. I'm going to try and do a chapter per day until it's finished.

Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another. - Thomas Merton

Ariel’s P.O.V.

It took about five and a half hours for Kat to get to the hotel that Spencer and I had been staying in. I had booked another hotel for us after I called her - I didn't want anyone connecting Spencer to what Kat and I were getting up to. I was waiting for her outside when she got there - the Caesar’s Palace Hotel was too swanky for us to go in, so we were changing at the little bed-and-breakfast type place that Spencer and I had been staying at. But Ari Ross and Kat Simms were just their type of rich - if not a bit more… intense… than their usual guests.

“Hey chica.” Kat said, as she kicked the kickstand into place before dismounting her old Harley and pulling the saddlebags off. “So what’s going on? You didn’t exactly explain why you wanted me out here with you - I thought this week was just for you and Spencer, anyways…”

I cut off her rambling with a quick hug. “I’ll explain to you once we’re inside, come on.”

8888

We managed to make it up to the room that Spencer and I had booked without earning ourselves any suspicious looks, and for that I was immensely grateful. Although, considering that we were in Vegas anyway… they weren't as likely to be suspicious of things. “What happens in Vegas” and all that. 

As soon as we got in the room, I locked the door and Kat threw the bags down on the king-sized bed in the middle of the room.

“Okay, so spill.” Kat said. “What happened to make you two cut your week in paradise short?”

I sighed as I opened up one of the bags, trying to figure out what to wear. Luckily, I had left a few outfits in Pasadena the last time we were up there visiting family. So Kat had been able to just grab some of my stuff from her parents’ house in Pasadena before hitting the road.

“Apparently there’s some new baddie who is trying to drag Spence and his team into his sick game.” I told her. “We were at Bennington, visiting with Diana, when one of the nurses gave Spence an envelope that someone had delivered for him.” 

Kat was hooked - she had always loved mysteries. “What was in it?” she asked, as she started to pull different pieces out of her bag to wear.

I smirked. “Sorry, babe.” I told her. “That’s classified.”

Kat groaned before throwing a pillow at my head. “Ugh. I hate you.”

“I know.” I said cheerfully, stripping out of my shorts and blouse before starting to pull on my ‘costume’. “Can you help me with this?” I asked, motioning to the dress that I had pulled out. Kat nodded before coming over and starting to lace it up. Luckily, after years of practice with slipping into and out of different costumes, the actual ‘dressing up’ process didn’t take that long, but by the time we were done, Kat and I still looked like ourselves - only ourselves in strange outfits. I wore a sleeveless black mini dress with a corset back, with black fishnets and four inch heels, with a burgundy cropped leather jacket overtop of it - it was a bit cliche, but it worked. Meanwhile, Kat had picked out a spaghetti-strap high-low top in army green, with black shorts, black fingerless gloves, and knee-high black combat boots with a platform heel.

“Right.” Kat said. “Now for the hard part.” She pulled all of the other stuff that we would need out - makeup, hair supplies, and jewelry. Lots and lots of jewelry. 

By the time we were completely finished an hour later, neither of us were recognizable - unless you looked very, very closely or knew us personally. My hair had been straightened, and Kat had applied black eyeshadow and a deep red lipstick to my face. I had given her the same look, only with a deep purple lip instead of a red one. The last thing to go on was jewelry. We went with the standard - rings, chokers, and a few chains - before going for the piercings. When we first started out, we had both wanted to get piercings, but then agreed that they weren’t very practical. So we settled for the next best thing - fake piercings. I normally used a nose stud, a lip ring, and several different cartilage piercings, while Kat usually just went with an eyebrow stud and regular earrings. 

Once we had finally finished with the daunting task of making sure that Ariel Reid and Katerina Simmons were unrecognizable, we threw on a couple of oversized coats and packed up our stuff before heading to the hotel that I had booked for Ari Ross and Kat Simms.

When we pulled up in front of the Caesar’s Palace Hotel, Kat gave me an evil grin. “I can see why you picked this place, Ari.” she said. As a rule, all of the members of Undiscovered Nemesis tried our best to not be assholes - unless someone really deserved it. So if a reporter is being a rude asshole, then yes, we’re going to say something about it. But we try not to cause trouble just for the sake of causing trouble. 

But I have always loved to stir people up just a bit. So booking us a room in one of the swankiest hotels in Vegas - where red carpet stars come to stay - and showing up covered in tattoos and piercings, just to see the looks on peoples’ faces?

Yeah, that was definitely something that I would do.

8888

Spencer’s P.O.V.

“The path to the end

Begins at his start.

To find her first calm

Her long broken heart.

She sits in a window

With secrets from her knight.

Is it adventure that keeps him

Out of her sight.”

“Is it another puzzle?” Garcia asked me.

“It’s a riddle.”

Began at his start… his” An idea was starting in the back of my head, I just couldn’t figure it out...

“The youngest holds the key… sits in a window… secrets, adventure…” it was starting to come together, and what little I had so far was making me nervous. But I didn’t want to say anything yet to Garcia, not until I was absolutely sure. “Secrets from her knight. Sits in a window.”

I hurried over to the table and picked up one of the photos that had the original poem on it. “Would it be night, but always clear day. That’d be - that’d be bright lights.”

I looked up from the picture as I remembered when Ariel and I had received that package at Bennington. “It’s never night in Las Vegas.” I said, putting it all together.

“Excuse me?” Garcia asked, but I ignored what she said in favor of going over to the phone and rapidly dialing.

“I - I need to be connected to the field office closest to Las Vegas, Nevada immediately.” I said. Within seconds, someone answered, and my panic went away a little. “Hi, this is Dr. Spencer Reid with the Behavioral Analysis Unit at Quantico. Look, I need my mother picked up and brought to Virginia in protective custody as soon as possible.”

They asked me why, and I hurried to explain. “We’re searching for an UnSub that shot one of our agents today, and I think he might know my mother, and I believe that she may be in danger.”

“Alright.” the man on the other end said. “Can you tell me where she is?”

“Yes.” I said, then took a breath. I knew that Garcia was still in the room, and was honestly afraid of how she would react to this information, but at the moment I didn’t care. “She’s at the Bennington Sanitarium in Las Vegas. Her name’s Diana Reid. She’s a… patient there.”

“Alright, I’ll send some agents over right away.” he said, before hanging up the phone.

I breathed out a sigh of relief, then steeled myself to make it past Garcia for right now. I would explain everything to her later, I decided, but first I had to give Ariel a head’s up and let her know what to expect.

8888

Ariel’s P.O.V.

It was another day before I heard anything from Spencer. Kat and I were at a casino - I honestly wasn’t even sure which one - when he called.

“Hey.” I said, holding the phone with my shoulder so that I finish off the round of roulette. I lost, so I took my remaining chips and backed away from the table, attempting to get away from the groupies that had formed around Kat and me as well. I quickly gave that part up as a lost cause, though. There was no shaking them, no matter how hard I tried.

“What’s up?” I asked. Hopefully, Spencer would pick up on the fact that I wasn’t really able to talk. We had had situations like this happen before, so my husband could usually pick up on it quickly.

“Hey Ari-bear.” he said. “Can you talk?” 

I smiled - he had picked up on it almost immediately. I gave a fake laugh, before saying “No way! So then what happened?” As dramatically as possible. I had learned not too long after our first tour how to hide what was really being talked about.

Spencer laughed slightly, apparently I was amusing him with my little code. “Agents from the FBI office closest to Vegas are coming to pick up my mother. Can you please go and meet them there? I wouldn’t ask, but you know how scared she is of flying.”

“Of course they did.” I said, rolling my eyes for the benefit of the people who ‘just happened’ to be eavesdropping. Unfortunately for me, that number was still a lot of people. “What time is the party?” I asked as I scanned the room, looking for Kat. I was going to need help if I was going to pull of a disappearing act here.

“I don’t know.” he said. “I placed the call about five minutes ago. They’ll probably be there within the hour.” 

I sighed, both with relief and exasperation - exasperation at my husband, and relief because I had finally located Kat in the crowds. She was over at the bar getting a drink.

“Okay.” I told Spence. “I should be there soon.”

Spencer sighed in relief. “Thanks. I love you.”

“Same to you.” I said before hanging up. As soon as I did that, I made a beeline for Kat. 

“Hey, I need to get out of here.” I told her. Luckily, she hadn’t actually been drinking any alcohol yet, so I didn’t have to waste any time repeating myself. 

“Why? What happened?” she asked.

“Remember that thing I was telling you about this morning?” I asked her, and she nodded. “Well apparently it's more serious than we thought. The man wants me back home ASAP.” I told her. “The man” was the band’s nickname for Spence - Gabe had come up with it after first meeting him, saying that he looked like ‘the white man’ that a lot of musicians talked about in their songs.

“Okay.” Kat said. “Do you need a distraction?”

“Yeah. A distraction would be nice right around now.” I admitted. 

Kat smirked. “No problem chica. I’ve got all the distraction that you need. Take my bike, okay? It’ll get you outta here faster, and the bags are already there anyway.”

“How’re you going to get out of here then?” I asked, but she just waved me off.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll catch a cab or something.”

8888

It took me less time than I thought it would to make my escape, and so I had time to stop and change back into my regular clothes before getting to Bennington. Luckily for me, because as soon as I got there I could tell that I was just in time.

Two government agents were already escorting Diana to a car when I arrived, and she appeared to be fighting them to the best of her ability. She stopped when she saw me, though.

“Ariel!” she called out, relieved. “Ariel, get these fascists away from me.”  
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked. 

“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to step aside.” one of the agents told me.

“Excuse me?” I asked, crossing my arms. “I don’t think so. If anything, I’m going to have to ask you to get your hands off my mother-in-law.”

The two agents looked at each other, having a silent conversation. Then they looked back at me. “In that case, you’re going to have to come with us as well, ma’am.” the first agent said.

“Fine.” I said stiffly. “Now let her go.” Luckily, they did as I asked - I wasn’t sure how much longer Diana was going to accept being manhandled like that. I put my arm around my mother-in-law, saying, “Come on, Diana. We’re going to go see Spencer, okay?” 

8888

Spencer's P.O.V.

“She’s ok - your mom.” Garcia told me awhile later. I had been just sitting at my desk, hoping that nothing happened to either of them - my mother or my wife - before the agents got to them. “Agents picked her up. She’s flying here right now.

“I forgot - she always used to read me this poem.” I said, looking at the evidence in my hands. “It’s funny, huh?”

“Funny?” Garcia asked.

“I should’ve realized sooner. No one knows things like the fact that JJ collects butterflies except for me. People tell me their secrets all the time. I think it’s cause they think that I don’t have anyone to betray them to… except my mother. I… I tell her pretty much everything.”

“I don’t think anyone would mind.” Garcia said, attempting to reassure me. 

“Do you know that I write her a letter every day?”

“That’s nice.”

I just smiled. “It depends on why I write her.”

“What do you mean?” Garcia asked. 

I smiled again, but on the inside I was terrified. Terrified that, by telling Garcia this about me, she might not care as much anymore. That she might think that I was as horrible as I did. “I write her letters so I won’t feel so guilty about not visiting her.” I explained, keeping my eyes focused on the evidence bag in my hands. “Did you know that schizophrenia is genetically passed?” I asked, and then I risked actually looking at her. I was so relieved when I didn’t see hate or disgust in her eyes. Instead, I saw… love. Acceptance. Sympathy. The kind of things that I usually saw in my wife’s eyes.

8888

Ariel’s P.O.V.

The flight back to Quantico was one of the most trying experiences of my life. Not only was there Diana’s fear of flying to contend with - which wouldn’t have been so bad if it was the only thing - but there were also the agents to deal with. They, apparently, had met my husband briefly, and so every once in awhile I would overhear a comment about how I was ‘out of his league’ and ‘not his type’ and other things like that. So by the time that the flight was over, I had had enough of their crap.

Right before the agents from Las Vegas handed us over to some agents from Spence’s office, I turned to look at them.

“Thank you, agents.” I told them both. The taller one smiled and nodded at me, while the shorter one - and the one who had been making 95% of the comments - spoke up.

“Not a problem ma'am.” he said. “And the next time you're in Las Vegas, just let us know if there's anything that we can do for you.”

I smirked - he had just given me the perfect opening. “Well, there is one thing that you could do…” I said, smiling at him.

“And what's that?” he asked.

“Stop making inappropriate comments about married women. And you can stop commenting about how Dr. Reid doesn’t ‘deserve’ me, because that’s where you are utterly wrong.” I snapped. “That’s what you can do for me - you can shut the hell up. Because let me tell you, if my mother-in-law hadn’t needed me during the flight, I would’ve shut you up ages ago.” With that, I turned and smiled at the agents who were going to take us to Spencer. “We don’t have any luggage or anything, so if you wouldn’t mind, could we get going please?”

8888

Spencer’s P.O.V.

I was over in the breakroom making my fifth cup of coffee for the day when I heard my mom’s voice.

“That’s why you’re so skinny, you know?” she said, and I turned to see both her and Ariel smiling at me. “Too much coffee.”

“Thanks a lot, guys.” I told the agents who had gotten them from the airport. “I’ve got them.” They nodded and walked off, and I walked over to the two women in my life.

Ariel wrapped me in a hug, while Mom started scolding me. “You know I’m terrified of flying.” she started. “If Ariel hadn’t been there…”

I couldn’t help but smile a little despite the seriousness of the situation as I hugged my wife tightly, taking a moment to just breathe in her scent. She smelled like apples, jasmine, and something that I still hadn’t been able to identify after seven years. “I know Mom. I’m sorry.”

“Well then why did you have those fascists arrest me?” she asked, and I could practically feel Ariel rolling her eyes.

I laughed softly for a second before explaining, “Mom, they’re not fascists, and you were not arrested. I’m trying to protect you - both of you.”

“By forcing me to do the one thing that frightens me more than anything else?” she asked.

I decided not to answer that. “I need to show you something.” I said, finally releasing Ariel from my arms and holding her hand instead. I refused to let go of her - Elle being shot had shaken me more than anything else, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to let either my mother or my wife out of my sight until this case was over. “Follow me.” I said, leading them to the conference room.


	8. Chapter 8

Ariel’s P.O.V.

Diana was walking behind us, so that gave me the opportunity to interrogate my husband.   
“What's going on, babe?” I asked. “I mean, not that I'm complaining, but you haven't let go of me for even a second since I got here.”

Spencer sighed. “Elle got shot.” he said. 

I was shocked. “Is she alright?” I asked. “Well, I mean, of course she's not alright, she's been shot. But she's…?”

“She's alive, yeah.” Spencer reassured. “She's in the hospital now - Hotch and Gideon are with her.”

I sighed in relief. “Thank goodness.” I said softly, now understanding why my husband refused to let me out of his sight. I had never met SSA Greenaway myself, but I had heard so many stories about her that I felt like I knew her - just like the rest of the team. I didn’t know any of them, either, but sometimes it felt like I did.

We walked into the conference room, and Diana started to look around.

“This is where you work?” she asked.

“This is where we meet. Uh, my desk, you can see it, it’s right out there in the bullpen area.” Spencer told her. 

“The table’s round.” Diana noted, and Spencer smiled. I went up on my tiptoes for a moment to kiss Spencer on the cheek before I slipped away from him, moving to examine a large piece of paper covered in sets of numbers.

“Yeah, just like I wrote you in my letters.” 

“Yes, just like you wrote in your letters.” Diana agreed, but there was so much ice in her tone that I nearly shivered. 

“Diana, I told you what happened on the plane, remember?” I asked her, but she ignored me. I had tried to explain to her on the plane ride that we had been about to come and see her when Spencer got the mysterious package, but I don’t think that she really believed me.

“Dr. Jessen gave me the book you brought. Marjorie Kemp.” she continued.

“She’s your favorite.” Spencer offered weakly.

“That particular book is one of her minor works.” she said. Then she moved over to one of the corkboards on the wall, grabbed ahold of an evidence baggie, and ripped it off of the wall.

Spencer rushed over. “Mom, no! Don’t ta - don’t.” he said quickly, taking the evidence out of her hands. “You can’t grab stuff off the board. This key is evidence!” He said.

“Spencer!” I rebuked him gently, giving him a look. He calmed down before saying.

“Mom, the UnSub that we’re looking for… the - the bad guy… knows things about my colleagues’ personal lives, things that only you - or Ariel - would know. Ariel didn’t tell anyone, so that leaves you. Do you write about them in your journals?” he asked.

She looked mad. “My journals are none of the government’s business!” she shouted, sending furtive looks at the walls. 

“I’m not the government, Mom.” Spencer said, trying to calm her. 

“Well this certainly looks like a government office!” she said, starting to yell again.

Spence took a deep breath before getting serious again. “Mother, do you write about my colleagues’ personal lives?” 

Diana put her head in her hands, and I moved over, going to put my arm around her when she shook her head. “Why did you bring me here, Spencer?” she asked, sounding distraught. 

Spencer hesitated for a second before making up his mind and continuing with his questions. “I need to ask you some questions about a man I think you might know. A bad man. He’s killed some people, and he’s - and he’s holding a girl hostage.”

Diana looked at him with such a put-out look on her face that I honestly had to work to keep from laughing - I just couldn’t help myself. “You think I know someone like that?” she asked.

“Will you just watch the tape and see if he sounds familiar?” he tried, and Diana nodded. She sat down at the table, and Spence started up a recording of who I assumed was the UnSub.

“I had to make sure I had your complete attention.” Came the man’s voice. Diana looked like she recognized it almost immediately. “I assure you, you will all understand in the end why it must be this way. You might even thank me.” 

Spencer paused it there, and he looked at Diana, noticing the shocked look on her face.

“You do know him?” he asked hopefully.

Diana nodded slowly. “I’m sure it’s… Randall Garner.” she said.

“Randall Garner.” my husband repeated.

“He was with me at the hospital.” Diana explained. “He’s a very emotionally disturbed man.”

Suddenly, a very not-FBI looking woman walked into the room. Her almost white-blonde hair was crimped, with orange streaks running through it, and she wore a black long-sleeved shirt with a bedazzled peace sign, long, intricate earrings, and black cat’s eye glasses. “Reid,” she said immediately. “I got to the end of the IP string. Sir Kneighf, the Fisher King, his name is Randall Garner.” she said.

“He’s Rebecca Bryant’s biological father.”

“Sorry.” I said, and the woman - whom I assumed was Garcia - spun to look at me. “But who’s Rebecca Bryant?” 

“She’s - she’s a missing girl that is involved in the case.” the woman said, looking at me in confusion. “Reid, who is this?” she asked.

I stiffened a little at the tone that she had. While I would be one of the first to say that she had every right to be surprised by my being there, that didn’t mean that she got to talk to my husband that way. “I’m Ariel.” I told her, moving forward and holding out my hand for her to shake. She took it reluctantly. “Ariel Reid. I’m Spencer’s wife.”

“Wife?” she echoed, sounding equal parts confused, ecstatic, and just plain surprised. “Reid has a wife?”

“Yes, he does.” I said, confused. I knew that Spence’s co-workers wouldn’t know about me, but I never guessed that this would be their reaction - that they would be at all skeptical of our relationship. “Got a problem with that?” 

“Ariel, be nice.” Spencer scolded, wrapping his arms around my waist. “Garcia, this is my mother, Diana.” he said, gesturing to where Diana was sitting, watching us with an amused expression. “And my wife, Ariel.”

“But - you can’t have a wife.” she said, confused. “Where’s the ring?”

I nearly laughed at that - based on all of the stories I had heard about Penelope Garcia, I should have known that that would be what she would have asked. Although, judging by the way she was eyeing me, I knew that her interrogations were far from over.

“Oh, that?” Spencer asked, reaching down his shirt to pull out the chain that he kept his ring on. He pulled the chain from around his neck and took the ring off, placing it on his finger where it belonged. 

“That’s much better.” I said, taking ahold of his hand to examine it.

8888

Garcia’s P.O.V.

“I can’t believe she’s real.” Mrs. Reid said. She was pacing back and forth across the room, while Reid and I worked. Meanwhile, Ariel was sitting in one of the chairs, scribbling something down on a notepad.

I wasn’t sure what to think of Reid’s wife just yet. I was honestly hurt more than anything - how could my Boy Genius have been married all this time and never tell us? So for the moment, I wasn’t talking to him outside of what needed to be said, since we still had to work together. I hadn’t even had a chance to tell Derek yet! He was going to flip out even more than I had when he found out.

“What do you mean?” I asked her. 

“Whenever he talked about Rebecca, he never said she was his daughter.” Mrs. Reid explained. “He said all his children died in the fire. He spoke of a Rebecca, more in the abstract. I really thought she was a metaphor, not an actual human being. An ideal.”

“A grail.” Reid said, and Ariel looked up from whatever it was that she was doing to listen for a second before going back to her scribbling. “He thinks he’s the Fisher King.” 

Just then, Derek and JJ walked into the room. “Who does?” Derek asked.

“Randall Garner, our UnSub.” Reid answered. 

“He believes you’re all modern-day knights of the round table.” Mrs. Reid spoke up. Derek looked at her in confusion for a moment, so Reid went over to introduce them.

“Uh, Derek Morgan, this is my mother, Diana Reid.” he said quickly.

“It’s your mother?” Derek said, sounding a bit more hostile then he probably intended. “Ma’am, it’s uh… it’s a pleasure to meet you.” he said. Then Ariel spoke from her corner.

“And what about me, huh?” she asked, standing up. “Don’t I get an introduction?” 

I was about to say something, but Derek cut me off. “Oh hush up, little one.” he said, smiling at her and going over to give her a hug. “Secret’s out, huh?”

She laughed, giving him a hug in return. “Yup.” then she went over to JJ and held out her hand, saying, “Hi, I’m Ariel. I’m Spencer’s wife.” 

JJ said something to her then, but I didn’t hear it. Instead, I was looking at Morgan in shock.

“You knew?” I whispered, and he looked at me strangely.

“What, about Ariel? Yeah, I knew. So what?” he said.

“So what? What do you mean, so what?” I started to rant. I would’ve said a lot more if Hotch hadn’t come into the conference room right then.

“So where are we on catching this son of a bitch?” he asked. Then he caught sight of Ariel, and I could have sworn that he gave her a slight smile. “You must be Mrs. Reid. It's nice to finally meet you, your husband has told me a lot about you.”

She smirked. “Oh really?” she said, giving Reid - her husband - a teasing look. “Well its nice to know that he told someone about me.”

That was when I was about ready to lose it. I was still having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that our boy genius was married at all, but then there was the fact that Derek and Hotch both knew! But for the moment, I had to push my anger at my babies to the back of my mind - we had a case to solve.

“I’ve rechecked all of the clues.” Reid said as he sat down. “There’s nothing that points to an address.”

“The adoption records for Rebecca listed an address of the fire, so I made a call to Nevada, and its vacant. No one ever rebuilt.” JJ pitched in.

“Nevada?” Hotch repeated. “So we don’t even know what state he’s in?”

“I’ll search the tax records, see if he owns any property.” I offered. 

Then Mrs. Reid broke in. “Excuse me.”

Reid got up from where he was sitting, as did Ariel. “Mom, we’re-” he started, but she cut him off.

“Just before the agents got me from the hospital,” she said, digging around in her purse, “a man delivered this to me.” She pulled out a photo. “It’s a photo of a house with an address on the back.”

“Shiloh, Virginia?” Ariel said, walking over to her mother-in-law. “That’s only about ten miles from here.”

Hotch looked at the picture for a second before making a decision. “Alright.” he said. “Let’s go.”

The team filed out of the room, leaving me behind with JJ, Mrs. Reid, and Ariel.

“Spence.” Ariel called out, right before her husband left the room. He turned and walked back over to her, and she pulled him into a tight hug, kissing his cheek gently. “Be careful, alright? Because if you come back to me hurt, I’m going to be seriously pissed off.” She finished by giving him a glare that quickly turned into a smirk.

His response was what shocked me. “Yes, ma’am.” he said playfully, pulling her in for one more kiss before leaving the conference room and jogging towards the elevator.

I just stared at her in shock for a moment. In all the time that I had known Dr. Spencer Reid, I had never once seen him act like that - all playful and adorable - with anyone.

While I was busy staring, JJ was going over to Ariel. “Don’t worry.” she said gently. “He’ll be fine.”

She smiled at JJ. “I know.” she said sadly. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t worry.”

8888

Ariel’s P.O.V.

It was several hours before Hotch, Morgan, and Spencer came back into the bullpen, and by then we had already gotten the news that Elle was out of surgery, and was going to be fine. I waited for JJ to tell the boys that, and continued working on the latest song for Undiscovered Nemesis in the meantime. We had done a lot more pop-punk songs on our last album, but we all agreed that we wanted to go back to the rock vibe that we all knew and loved.

I smiled when I felt Spencer rest his chin on the top of my head as he looked over what I had written down so far. “How’s Rebecca?” I asked him.

“She’ll be fine.” he said, but I frowned. There had been something off since he first walked over, but it was only now that I was able to place it.

My husband reeked of smoke.

I spun the chair around and nearly gasped out loud when I took in the sight of him. His face was smudged with ash and smoke, and his one of his pant legs was burned off almost to the knee.

“What happened?” I asked, hugging him tightly. Spencer grabbed onto me just as tight, if not even tighter.

“Randall Garner.” he said quietly. “He… he had a bomb.”

I honestly had absolutely no idea what to say, so I didn’t say anything. I just held onto my husband a little bit tighter before letting go and taking his hand.

“Come on, Spence.” I told him gently. “Let’s get your mom and then go home.”


	9. Chapter 9

Ariel’s P.O.V.

After the Fisher King debacle was over, we spent what was left of Spencer’s vacation time in Las Vegas and Pasadena, before returning back home to Quantico - this time with Kat.

The first day that Spence went back to work, they were sent out on a case early in the evening, around five. He called me on the way to the airstrip, right in the middle of my cooking dinner for the both of us.

“Hey babe.” I said as I answered the phone. “Are you on your way home? I'm making your favourite.”

I smirked when I heard him practically moan at the thought - I had learned long ago that the fastest way to a man's heart was through his stomach, and my Spencer was no exception.

“I'm not gonna be home tonight at all - we just got a case.” he said regretfully. I stopped what I was doing. I knew that this would happen, but I guess that I hadn't really thought about it too much. After all, this was the first time since I had gotten off tour that this had happened.

“Alright.” I said after a minute. “No worries - maybe I'll just swing by the BAU after its done and give some to Garcia.” I decided.

“That'd be nice.” Spencer said. “I'm glad that you two are getting along so well - I knew you would.”

I barely managed to hold back a snort of laughter after he said that. Garcia and I were anything but close, but I was hoping that I would be able to fix that tonight. 

“Alright, Spence. Go save some lives, and come home in one piece, okay?”

He laughed. “Yes ma’am.” he teased. “I love you.”

I felt my lips curl up in the same sappy grin that I got every time I heard him say those words. “I love you too.”

8888

Spencer’s P.O.V.

As soon as I hung up the phone, I realized that the rest of my team was staring at me, and I blushed. 

“What?” I asked. They all just stared at me for a second or two longer until Hotch spoke up. “I thought that I was the only one who ever called their wife ‘ma’am’.”

That at least helped to ease the tension slightly, and got the team to relax a bit… all except for me, because I knew what was coming - the dreaded interrogation session.

“So how long have you two been married, Spence?” unsurprisingly, it was JJ who started off the questioning.

“Um, a little over three years now. We got married when I was twenty-one and she was twenty.” I told them.

“What does she do?” Gideon asked.

“Ariel works, um, in the music industry.” I said, stumbling over my words a little. The whole line of conversation was quite honestly nerve-wracking for me, even though they had barely started. I knew that my co-workers - my friends - would be interested, but I hadn’t really been anticipating this.

“How did you meet?” JJ asked me.

Luckily, that was when Morgan picked up on my distress. “Come on, guys.” he said. “Let’s work on the case for now. We’ll have plenty of time to interrogate both of the kids when it’s over.” 

I flashed him a smile as the team actually listened, and he gave me one in return. Now hopefully things would go back to normal… at least for the rest of the case.

8888

Ariel’s P.O.V.

I was at the BAU by around six-thirty that night with what I hoped would be an acceptable peace offering.

I stopped one of the guys that I saw walking around - he was taller, with short black hair, and introduced himself as Agent Grant Anderson.

“Can you tell me where Penelope Garcia’s office is?” I asked him sweetly. He gave me a once-over before noticing both my visitor’s badge and the glare I was giving him, then took me to what I had heard my husband refer to on more than one occasion as ‘the tech-cave’.

When I went in, I knew immediately why he called it that. The desk was covered in a mixture of strangely colored knick-knacks and a state-of-the-art computer system. The woman in question was sitting at her desk, her nails clicking against her keyboard in a strangely soothing rhythm. 

“Of course.” she said, and I assumed that she was talking to someone on the team. “Ttyl, sweetness.”

I knocked on the door, and Garcia spun around in her chair, then visibly deflated when she saw it was me.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“Hi.” I said softly, a lot more nervous now that I was here in person. From what I knew about Penelope Garcia, she was like the overprotective big sister of the team, and while she usually trusted people completely, it took a bit for people to earn that trust. “So, I was already in the middle of making dinner when Spence called me saying that they had a case. So… I thought that I would bring it here, that maybe… You and I could talk a bit, get to know each other a bit more?”

She sighed, looking at me for a moment. “What is it?” she asked curiously.

I smiled, cracking the container open. “Chicken stir fry.” I told her. “Spencer's favorite.”

She hesitated for a moment longer before deciding. “Alright then. Let's have at it.”

I smiled then, and for the first time since I had met Penelope, I got a tentative smile in return.

8888

Once we had started eating - during which I kind of just sat there awkwardly and watched while she continued to work away at her computer.

Then, right as I was taking another bite, she turned to me and asked, “So how did you meet Reid?”

Her bluntness - along with the large bite of chicken and vegetables - made me choke for a second as I tried to get my bearings.

Once I was finally able to breathe properly again, I looked up at her, my eyes still watering. “Sorry, what?” I croaked out.

“How did you two meet?” she repeated. “If you want me to trust you, to open up to you, you have to tell me more about you.”

I sighed. “Alright.” I told her. “I'll answer your questions - just not that one, not yet.”

“Why not?” she asked. 

“Because it's not just my story to tell.” I answered. “Besides, its a story that I'd like to only have to tell once.”

Penelope nodded, going along with what I was telling her, although I still thought that she seemed a bit suspicious of me. “Fine.” she said. “Then when did you get married?”

I smiled at that, reminiscing a bit. “A little over three years ago.” I told her. “We eloped, actually.”

Penelope looked at me in shock. “What?” she asked. “You mean you didn’t do the whole white dress, black tux, bridesmaids-and-flowers thing?”

I shook my head. “Nope.”

“Why not?”

I just shrugged. “I don’t know. We were young, and didn’t have the money or the desire for a big ceremony. We just wanted to get married.” Then I gave her a wicked smirk. “And I think that we were both a bit eager to get to the honeymoon.”

That actually got a surprised laugh out of the blonde, and I smiled. 

“Okay, so maybe I was wrong about you.” Garcia admitted. “Maybe you aren’t so bad after all.”

“I’m really not.” I agreed, and she snorted at my lack of modesty. “Seriously, though. I really appreciate how protective you are over the team.” I admitted. “It honestly makes me feel a lot better about letting Spencer go out in the field.”

Penelope smiled at me. “Aw.” she said. “I’m touched.”

Then we both heard a beep, and she sighed. “And speaking of our favorite band of adventurers…” she said, making me giggle as she hit the call button. “This is Penelope Garcia, live from Quantico! What can I do for you, caller number one?”

“Hey Garcia.” Spencer’s voice came out of the speakers. “I need you to do a complete background check on the victims.”

“I’m on it.” she said, hanging up. She started tapping away at her computer, and I took that as my cue to leave.

“Alright, Penelope.” I said, collecting the bag of what were now leftovers. “I’ll see you around, okay?”

She nodded, still engrossed in her work. “Definitely.” she said.

I just smiled, walking out. Maybe I would introduce myself to Elle next...


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, my beautiful behavioral analysts! It is I, your amazing purveyor of fictional goodness. Okay, enough of that. So the song scene in this chapter was inspired by the movie Lemonade Mouth. In my opinion, its honestly one of the last good Disney movies of its genre/type, but that’s a completely different subject. So there’s that… enjoy the chapter!

Garcia’s P.O.V.

Ariel had asked me to come over to their apartment early to help set up for the party - she had planned it so that the whole team could actually get a chance to really meet her, as well as some of what she and Reid called their extended family, before she had to leave for work for another few months.

When I got there, I knocked on the door before standing there for a moment and waiting, trying to juggle the bags in my hands.

When someone finally opened the door, I was going to walk in, but luckily I looked before I did, because the woman standing in the doorway wasn’t Reid or Ariel. 

The first thing that I noticed about her was her hair - which had been dyed fuchsia, and cut short - followed by the fact that she was not who I was expecting.

“I’m sorry!” I said quickly. “I must have the wrong apartment!”

Then Ariel appeared behind the woman. “No, Penelope, you have the right place.” she noticed the bags I was carrying, and quickly shoved her friend out of the way.

“Katerina, help us out please?” she asked, and that was what got the fuchsia-haired woman moving.

Once we were inside and had dropped the bags on the table, I took a second to look around the apartment - and to look at the people in it. I had always imagined Reid’s apartment to look like a library, and was pleased to see that I was right, but that was where it ended. Nothing else looked like I thought it would. There were framed posters and t-shirts from different bands and concert tours all over the walls, and one entire wall of the living room was covered in CDs. There were several guitars in the corner of the dining room, and a large stereo system set up on the kitchen counter.

“Thanks for coming early, Penelope.” Ariel said gratefully. “I wouldn’t have asked, but someone is absolutely useless when it comes to helping.” she finished, throwing a glare at the other woman - Katerina.

I took the opportunity to give Katerina an appraising look. I couldn’t figure out how someone like her could be friends with my sweet genius. She wore a cute floral patterned dress underneath a flannel shirt, with black combat boots laced up her thighs.

“Hey,” she protested, “You told me that if I came over, you would have beer. You never said anything about helping.” Then she turned her attention to me, giving me a quick once-over. “So,” she said, not sounding very impressed. “You work with Big Brain?”

“Kat, be nice.” Ariel scolded. “Penelope Garcia, this is Katerina Simmons - she’s my sister, and Spencer’s best friend. Kat, this is Penelope Garcia, technical analyst extraordinaire for the BAU.”

I gave Ariel a surprised look. “You two are sisters?” I asked. I never would have guessed it if they hadn’t told me.

They both laughed - Katerina looked a lot less intimidating now, so I hoped that she was warming up to me. “Not by blood.” she explained. “But Ariel was at my house so often when we were growing up that my parents always joked that she lived there.”

I laughed at that, and a few minutes later, Reid came walking in to find the three of us chatting away happily. He walked over to the table where Katerina was finishing up making the food, and tried to steal some, only to yelp in surprise when she smacked his hand with a spoon.

“Not yet, stupid.” she scolded him. I turned around, half expecting either of the Reids to get mad at her for talking to him like that, but Reid just rolled his eyes, while Ariel snorted a laugh.

Someone knocked on the door, and Ariel went to open it. There was a few seconds of silence, before she laughed happily, and Katerina and Reid looked at each other, as if having a mental conversation, before speaking.

“It’s Finn.” Reid said, but Katerina shook her head.

“No,” she said. “It’s Lee.” 

Ariel laughed as she came around the corner. “You’re both wrong.” she said. “It’s Gabe.”

I felt my breath hitch in my throat as a man came around the corner. He was very tall, with dark hair. He wore a gray Henley with jeans, and what little bits of his skin that was showing was covered in tattoos. “Hey kitten.” he said, going over to the table and ruffling Katerina’s hair, making her swat at him in irritation. 

He turned to Reid, giving him one of those weird man-hugs, saying, “Finn and Lee are on their way.” 

He smirked. “Oh, so they finally managed to get out of bed?” he teased.

Suddenly, two more men came into the kitchen. One of them was tall and blonde, while the other was short and Asian. “Hey!” the short one said. “Enough of the hate already!”

At this point I was slightly uncomfortable - I felt like I was intruding on a private moment of some sort.

“Oh shut up Lee!” Ariel said, punching him in the shoulder. “You know he doesn’t mean it like that.”

That was when the first guy - Gabe noticed me standing there. “Well, well, well.” he drawled. “Who’s this little cutie?”

Katerina rolled her eyes. “Gabe, this is Penelope - she works with killer here.” she said, introducing us. “Penelope, this is Gabriel - the worst curse on Earth.”

That made me laugh, even as I gave him an appreciative look. Then I realized what she had said. “Killer?” I echoed. “Why do you call Reid that?”

“It’s a joking nickname, of course.” Reid explained. “But, when I first met Ariel, she said that I didn’t look like I could hurt a fly, let alone stand up to Katerina.”

The last comment confused me a bit, but I brushed it off for the time being. That was when the rest of the team started to show up - first Morgan, followed by JJ, Gideon, and finally Hotch, Haley, and Jack. The only one who didn’t come was Elle.

8888

Spencer’s P.O.V.

As soon as Haley and Jack got there, Ariel went over and started cooing over the baby, leaving me to introduce the two halves of our family to each other - all of them except Elle. I wasn’t sure why she hadn’t come, I had called and invited her a few days ago. I hadn’t told her why I wanted her to come over, though - I wasn’t sure if she would believe me about Ariel unless she saw her.

My team - other than Morgan and Garcia, who were both talking with Lee and Katerina, respectively - was standing on one side of the kitchen, just staring at the band. I was just left awkwardly standing in between the two groups - three, if you counted Ariel and Hayley, who had gone into the living room to play with Jack.

“So, big brain.” Katerina said after a bit, stopping her conversation with Garcia. “Are you gonna introduce us, or are we going to just stand here and stare at each other all night long?”

I blushed slightly, but was silently thanking Kat for breaking the ice a bit. “Right. Um, this is my team - you already know Derek Morgan and Penelope Garcia, and then this is Jason Gideon, Jennifer Jareau -” the woman in question gave me a Look, and I quickly corrected myself. “-sorry, JJ, and Aaron Hotchner - Ariel took his son, Jack, and wife, Haley, into the living room.” Then I turned to my family - and that’s what they were. While my team was slowly becoming like a second family to me, my real family was Gabe, Finn, Kat, Lee, and of course Ari.

“This is my family - Finn Ryan, Lee Voss, Katerina Simmons, and Gabe Geissler.” I said, pointing to each of them in turn. 

Garcia, unsurprisingly, was the one who broke the silence first. “So how did you guys meet?” she asked, and both Kat and Morgan started laughing, while I groaned. “What?” she asked. “What’s so funny?” 

“Okay, so you’re gonna want to sit down for this story.” Kat began, while Finn started to pull glasses down from one of the cabinets. “So our story begins about ten years ago…”

8888

Ariel's P.O.V.

Haley and I were playing with Jack in the living room, when there was a huge burst of laughter from the kitchen. We were both confused for a second, before JJ walked into the room, wiping tears from her eyes. 

“Did Katerina really get those guys to leave Spence alone by threatening them with a Nerf gun?” she asked, as everyone else started to come into the room behind her.

I nodded, laughing. “Yup.” I confirmed. “But that’s nothing on how we met.” I told them.

“Yeah, little lady.” Morgan said, taking a sip of his beer. “You two never did tell us how that happened.”

I sat down on the couch next to Spencer, and he wrapped his arms around my waist. “I guess you’re right.” I said, turning to look at my husband. “Do you want to tell them, or should I?” I asked him.

“You tell them.” he said, and I sighed.

“Fine.” I teased him, before turning to our friends. “So, our story starts about ten years ago, when we were fourteen…”

8888

“I was running late for my job - I was working at a local music store, giving lessons under the table - but I had spilled orange juice on my shirt, so I had to run upstairs and change first. By that point, I was basically living at the Simmons’ house full time, sharing a room with Katerina. So, without even thinking about it, because I had thought that I was the only one home, I was taking off my shirt as I walked into the bedroom… only to stop about a foot into the room when I realized that there’s this really geeky-looking kid with these huge glasses on his face sitting in my room and staring at me in horror.”

8888

That was when both Haley and Morgan - along with the rest of the band - burst out laughing. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Haley said, and I was a bit surprised. My first impression of Haley was that she was a bit more stern - kind of like her husband. But she proved me wrong fairly quickly.

“So you walked into your room, half naked -” Haley could barely get the words out, she was laughing so hard. “- and he’s just sitting there, staring at you?”

8888

Spencer’s P.O.V.

“Hey!” I protested, feeling the need to defend myself. “I was a fourteen year old kid who had barely even talked to girls, let alone seen one half naked! Then she walks into the room, hair flying, looking angry as hell, and without a shirt. And then Kat - who was the reason that I was even there in the first place, because I was tutoring her - walks in the room, and goes -”

Kat said the next part with me, even though she was nearly in tears from laughing so hard. “Hey, Ariel, have you met - holy crap, why are you naked?”

By that point, every single person in the room was howling with laughter - even Finn, Gabe, and Lee, who had heard the story a million times by now.

“You two are ridiculous, you know that?” Morgan said, shaking his head. “Coming from anyone else, that story wouldn’t have been believed for a damn second.”

“Oh trust me, I know.” I said, rolling my eyes even as I pulled my wife in closer.

8888

It was hours later, and the party was just starting to wind down, when Penelope started to mess with the music. I thought about stopping her for a moment, then decided against it.

I regretted that decision when she found one of our songs.

The song started to play, and Garcia turned to me, saying, “I thought that I was the only one who still knew that this song even existed!”

Before I even had a chance to respond, I was already back on memory lane.

8888

It was 1998, and we were playing at the one place where we had a regular gig going - a tiny little restaurant that made great pasta and had us play every Tuesday night. Unfortunately, we weren't doing as well as we normally did, but we all knew why.

Kat had finally gotten up the nerve to break up with Joel, her last boyfriend, and he hadn't been happy about it. We had all known that something was seriously wrong with their relationship, but we hadn't realized just how bad things were until the next day when Kat showed up at school the next day looking more depressed than we had ever seen.

That was when we all learned the hard truth that not all abuse is physical. And that sometimes people can hide the truth until its almost too late.

That was also when she had started to wear darker colors - nothing like what she would wear in her future, but less of the bright pink dresses and things that Joel had had her wearing. It was her first small rebellion against Joel - the guy who had decided everything for her, from what she wore to how her hair was styled, to how long she could practice with us. The one other major change she made was that Kat retreated - not physically, but emotionally. 

We had all known that something was wrong, and now we were all plagued with guilt for not doing something about it. Our previously confident and shining star of a friend - the girl who had gotten Around Mars together in the first place - was gone, and replaced by a fractured shell of her former self.

It took us several weeks, but she had slowly started to return back to her usual self, with a lot of help from us. Everything was looking up, until that night, when Joel decided to show up at our gig with some new girl on his arm. Things had started to go downhill as soon as she noticed him in the audience.

So we were pleasantly surprised when, after an attempt at one of our latest songs had failed miserably, Kat turned to us with a gleam in her eyes that we hadn't seen for far too long.

“Guys, I kinda want to try that new song that Ari and I just finished writing. Are you up for it?” she asked. We all agreed almost instantly, mostly because we were just happy to see even the tiniest hint that our girl was going to eventually be okay.

So Kat put down her guitar and walked towards the mic, brushing a lock of her long dark brown hair behind her ear as she went.

She gripped the microphone tightly in her hands, taking a deep breath before exhaling loudly, then signaling to us to start playing.

I picked up a guitar to back her up, and we started playing.

Insecure  
In her skin  
Like a puppet, a girl on a string

I could already see some of my best friend’s confidence returning - she was playing to the crowd, performing the song. But most importantly, she was completely ignoring Joel.

Broke away  
Learned to fly  
If you want her back, gotta let her shine

So it looks like the joke's on you  
'Cause the girl that you thought you knew

 

She walked off of the raised platform that we used as a stage, and started to walk around the resturaunt then, trying to get the audience involved. It was working - people were clapping along and dancing in their seats.

She's so gone  
That's so over now  
She's so gone  
You won't find her around  
You can look but you won't see  
The girl I used to be  
'Cause she's  
She's so gone

 

As Kat sang the chorus, she hopped up onto the counter and just sat there for a minute, before jumping down, fixing her hair, and continuing on. I had never seen her like this before, and it puzzled me for a moment before I realized why. She was putting everything she had and then some into this performance because Joel was there - because she wanted him to think that he hadn’t affected her at all.

Here I am  
This is me  
And I'm stronger than you ever thought I'd be

Are you shocked?  
Are you mad?  
That you're missing out on who I really am

Now it looks like the joke's on you  
'Cause the girl that you thought you knew

She's so gone  
That's so over now  
She's so gone  
You won't find her around  
You can look but you won't see  
The girl I used to be  
'Cause she's  
She's so gone away  
Like history  
She's so gone  
Baby, this is me, yeah

She's so gone  
That's so over now  
She's so gone  
You won't find her around  
You can look but you won't see  
The girl I used to be  
'Cause she's  
She's so gone  
(That's so over now)  
She's so gone  
(You won't find her around)

You can look but you won't see  
The girl I used to be  
'Cause she's  
She's so gone

So long  
She's so gone, she's so gone... gone, gone, gone.

That night, Kat was happier than she had been for a long time, and we knew that everything would turn out right in the end. The next day, she showed up at school with most of her hair cut off, in the same style that would one day be her trademark look - all she needed was the hair dye.

8888

I snapped out of the memories as the song came to an end, which was lucky for me. Another few seconds and she would have been asking why I had spaced out, which was definitely a story that I did not want to share. Looking around the room, I could see that the rest of the band had just taken the same trip.

“I wonder whatever happened to them?” she asked. “One day they just disappeared - they were never really all that big, but they still had their fans.”

Kat smiled. “They grew up.” she said simply, shrugging her shoulders. “After a few years, they came back out with a new sound and a new name, but they're still around.” 

“Oh really?” she asked, intrigued. “What are they called now?” 

This time, Lee answered. “Undiscovered Nemesis.”


	11. Just Tonight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N~ This chapter is a bit of a filler chapter, I’m sorry! But it does involve one character leaving, and another appearing for the first time, so… yeah. It also takes place over several months, too - I’m not sure exactly how many, as Criminal Minds doesn’t really have an exact timeline to it. Okay, I think I’m done with the explanations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I only own the band, people! The song used in this chapter is Just Tonight, by the Pretty Reckless. And I forgot to say so last chapter, but the song there was She’s So Gone from the movie Lemonade Mouth.

Ariel’s P.O.V.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t had a chance to go and meet Elle before she was allowed to go back on duty. Spencer and I tried several more times after the party, but either the team would get a case, or she wouldn’t be home. I could’ve just gone to meet her on my own, but we had decided against that, as we had no idea how she would react to a random stranger showing up and announcing that she was the wife of one of her teammates.

As the months went on, and it got closer and closer to my next tour date, we stopped trying altogether. We were too busy trying to spend every moment that we could together before we wouldn’t see each other for another six months, except for the occasional time when we would end up in the same city.

Spencer dropped me off at the airport three days before Elle was due back to the team, and I could tell that it was weighing on his mind. “Hey.” I told him as we walked towards a security checkpoint. “It'll be alright, Spence. I'm sure that she'll take it just as well as the rest of the team did.”

My husband laughed. “Then I think that you must be remembering how they reacted wrong, because I don't remember them taking it as well as you apparently do.”

I laughed too, before going up on my tiptoes to give my husband one last long kiss. “Don't forget - let me know if you guys are gonna be on a case while we're having a show, okay?” I told him. “I'll leave you a ticket.”

He smiled. “Alright, I'll remember.” he promised. “As long as you remember to call me every night or two.”

“As long as you pick up.” I teased, before growing serious again. “I love you.”

Spence smiled at me. “I love you, too.”

I gave him one last kiss, before grabbing ahold of my bags and heading for the security checkpoint. I could feel Spencer’s eyes on me as I walked away, and I did my very best to keep any tears from falling.

“LA, here I come.” I muttered softly.

8888

Spencer’s P.O.V.

I was walking past the elevators, when I noticed her. 

Elle was standing in the middle of the hallway, looking… apprehensive at best.

She smiled at me. “Well, if it isn’t Dr. Reid.” she drawled.

I was surprised to see her back already - she wasn’t supposed to be back for another few days at least. “Elle! Wow!”

We stood there, awkwardly looking at each other, while I tried to figure out an opportunity to tell her about Ariel. I had been hoping that she would just notice my ring, but so far she hadn’t, so I was struggling to come up with a Plan B.

Luckily, I found my opening pretty quickly. 

“Nice haircut.” she told me, and I instinctively put my hand up to run it through my hair.

“Thanks.” I told her, putting my hands back in my pockets. “Yeah… I like your haircut, too.”

Her smile got a little bigger - a little less forced - for a moment. “Is that a boy’s regular?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, it is.” then I got self-conscious for a second. “Wha - do you not like it?”

“It’s totally you.” she said. That was my opening.

“Thanks.” I told her. “Ariel said that too - although she says that she likes it both ways, because when it was longer, she could practice braiding on it…” I was rambling, and I knew it, but I just couldn’t seem to stop myself. I was hoping that she would catch the name, and then be so distracted by that that she wouldn’t even notice the rest of what I was saying.

“Ariel?” she asked, looking confused. “Reid, who’s that?”

I blushed a little, bracing myself for all of the different possible ways that she could react. “Ariel is, um… she’s my wife.”

“Your wife.” she said, her voice a complete monotone, but that wasn’t what worried me. What worried me was that I couldn’t read her facial expressions at all, because she had put on a mask of indifference as soon as I said the word ‘wife’. Or maybe it wasn’t a mask - maybe she just didn't care.

But I didn’t have a chance to find out which it was before Hotch came over.

8888

It was another week or so before anyone mentioned Ariel again. By that point, I had started to arrive at work as early as possible, and leave as late as possible. The only one who stayed longer than I did was Gideon.

I was getting another cup of coffee when the man in question came down from his office.

“Doesn’t anybody ever go home?” he asked as he made his way past Elle and me. 

“You’re here.” she replied.

“Exactly.” he said, bending over to look through the fridge in the break room. “Trust me, you don’t want to model your social life around mine.”

Just then, JJ came walking over with files in her hands. “If it makes you feel any better, Hotch and Morgan took off.”

“Hotch is married,” I told her. “Morgan’s, you know, Morgan.”

“So are you.” Elle said, and then clarified when I looked at her, confused. “Married, I mean.”

I could feel my shoulders slumping a bit as I thought about that - about the empty apartment that was waiting for me. “Ariel had to leave town for work.” I explained. “She won’t be back for another few months at least.”

Everyone was quiet for a minute - everyone except for Gideon.

“What’s this?” he asked, flipping through a case file.

JJ looked relieved by the subject change. “Police in Dayton, Ohio need our help with a serial rapist…”

8888

Ariel’s P.O.V.

We were just getting onto the tour bus to leave LA when my phone started playing “Safe & Sound”. That was one of the first songs that Undiscovered Nemesis had gotten on the air, and it was one that Spence and I had written together. I smiled as I flipped my phone open.

“Hey babe.” I said as I gave Gabe a playful shove and then sat down in his seat. He flipped me off and sat down next to me, letting me use him as a pillow. “What's up?”

What he said surprised me. “I think Elle is leaving.”

“What?” I asked. “Why would she do that?” Spence had been keeping me updated on everything that was happening in the BAU as time went on, but I was already missing him more than anything, even with our daily calls.

“You know how Hotch had her go and talk to a therapist after she shot an UnSub?” he asked, and I nodded. Then I remembered that he couldn't actually see me.

“Yeah, I remember.” I said. While I hadn't really liked how she went about it, I definitely understood why she had done it. If I had been in her shoes, I might have done the same thing.

“Well, she never showed up.” he said. “She also didn't show up to get on the plane for this case, and neither did Hotch. I think that he's going after her.”

I sat up, accidentally elbowing Gabe in the crotch. “Shit!” I said. “Sorry Gabe.”

Spence laughed knowingly. “You just elbowed him in the crotch, didn't you?” he asked.

“Oh shut up.” I said, and he laughed louder. “So you really think that she's going to leave?” I asked, getting back to the topic at hand.

My husband sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, I really do.” he said softly.

“I'm so sorry, babe.” I told him softly, before deciding to change the topic. “Hey, so we're going to be in Vegas for at least a few nights - I was planning on stopping in to visit Diana.”

I could practically hear him rolling his eyes. “Sure.” he said teasingly. “Keep rubbing it in that she likes you better, why don't you?”

I laughed at that, as we both knew that that was about as far from the truth as possible.

“Well, either way, sweetheart, it’ll be okay.” I told him. “I promise.”

He laughed softly. “You’re right.”

“Ah, my favorite words.” I teased, and he laughed again. “Alright, I gotta go, babe.” I told him. 

He sighed softly, before saying, “Fine. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

I hummed in agreement. “Love you.”

“Love you too.”

8888

The next few nights were concert nights in Detroit, so I didn’t have a chance to call my husband until we were back on the road again. And even then, I didn’t call him - he called me.

It was around nine-thirty at night when I got the call. “Hello?” I asked. I was sitting in the dressing room that the stadium had provided for Kat and I to share, putting on the last bits of my stage makeup. I was honestly impressed with the costume that they had come up with for me this time - a black lace hi-low dress with a poofy skirt, black knee-high combat boots, and a skull nose ring. It was feminine, but not overly done.

“Hey.” Spencer’s voice sounded tinny. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much.” I said. “Where are you?”

“I’m on the plane.” he said, and then there was a pause, and I faintly heard a voice in the background. “Gideon says hello.”

I smiled. “Tell him I said hi back.” I heard him give my message, and then I heard something that had me sitting up straight. A woman’s voice. It was faint, but I could clearly tell that it wasn’t JJ or Garcia, and according to Spencer’s latest voicemail message, Elle had quit.

“Who is that?” I asked, and - while I would never admit it - I could feel myself growing slightly jealous. 

“What?” Spencer asked. “Oh, the voice? Yeah, thats, um, Prentiss - Emily Prentiss. She’s new… she replaced Elle.”

“What’s she like?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even. 

“She’s actually quite impressive so far.” he said.

“And does she know you’re married?” I asked.

He laughed in disbelief. “Ariel… are you jealous?” he asked, and I blushed, shaking my head no, forgetting for a moment that he couldn’t actually see me.

“Of course not!” I denied, and he laughed even harder.

“You are so jealous!” he said happily. “I thought that I was the only one that got like that!”

“Oh, shut up!” I said, even though I was laughing too. 

Once we finally stopped laughing, he told me, “Yes, she does know.” he told me. “At least, I’m assuming she does.”

“Alright.” I sighed, as Kat tapped my shoulder. I turned to look at her, and she signaled that we were due onstage in three minutes. “Hey, babe, I’ve got to go - I’m due onstage.”

“Okay.” he said, although I could hear the twinge of disappointment in his voice. “I’ll talk to you soon, I guess.”

“Of course you will.” I said. “Love you.”

“I love you too.” I told him, before hanging up and smiling at Kat. “Let’s do this.” I said.

8888

Everything went dark, and the crowd grew silent as a wave of anticipation washed over them. Then the lights slowly came one - one spotlight at a time, revealing each member of Undiscovered Nemesis as fog rolled across the stage. First to be revealed was Kat Simms, and the spotlight shone on her as she starting to strum a slow melody. 

The next spotlight lit up slowly, revealing Ari Ross as she began to sing. 

Here we are  
And I can't think from all the pills, hey  
Start the car and take me home.

The other spotlights came on - first on Gabe, then Finn, then finally Lee, as they all began to play as well.

Here we are  
And you’re too drunk to hear a word I say  
Start the car and take me home

The crowd started to go insane as they kicked it up a notch, starting in on the chorus. 

Just tonight I will stay and well throw it all away  
When the light hits your eyes  
Its telling me I'm right  
And if I, I am through  
Then its all because of you  
Just tonight


	12. Minimal Loss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N~ Hello, my lovelies! Okay, so this chapter is from the episode “Minimal Loss” in season four. However, I’m not actually skipping that far forward in the timeline - I’m just shifting the order of episodes around. Also, for my purposes, Gideon is in this episode instead of Rossi. I’m going to end up playing around with the order of episodes and things a lot, but for the most part things will stay the same. Sorry that this is a rather short chapter!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song in this chapter is House on a Hill by the Pretty Reckless.

As they approached the compound, Prentiss kept trying to figure out what it was that Reid was doing. 

He kept tapping his fingers against his leg - first one tap, then two sets of two. It was starting to worry Prentiss a bit.

“What’cha doing?” she asked. 

Reid looked up, startled. “Sorry - I didn't even realize I was doing that.” 

“Reid, its fine.” Prentiss reassured him. “What was it?”

He turned a bit red before he answered. “House on a Hill, by Undiscovered Nemesis. Something about this case is reminding me of it…”

“You listen to Undiscovered Nemesis?” Prentiss smirked. “I honestly never thought that you would ever listen to anything other than Mozart.” 

Reid looked offended. “Actually, I enjoy more of Beethoven’s works…” then he smirked, making Prentiss laugh.

“I’ve never heard of that one, though…” she mused, making Reid slightly nervous.

“Uh, they… they just released it, actually.” he said, hoping that she wouldn’t be able to see through his lie. In reality, the song was one that wouldn’t be released for another week or two, but he had heard the band work on it enough before they had gone on tour that he had it memorized.

“Nice.” she said, and then they both lapsed into silence as they continued up the hill.

8888

They were on the plane on the way back to Quantico, and Prentiss was walking back to her seat when she noticed that Reid wasn't sleeping or reading like he usually did on the plane rides. Instead, he was listening to music through ear buds. Although, she realized, he had been listening to music a lot more recently. 

She filed that thought away for later and sat down next to him. She tapped him on the shoulder, making him jump. “Sorry.” she said as he pulled the ear buds out. 

“Its alright.” Reid assured her. “What can I do for you?”

“I was just wondering… what made you think of that song? Home on a hill?” Prentiss asked.

“Actually, its House on a Hill.” Reid told her. “And the words of the song are oddly specific - which makes sense considering that the song is about the repressive effects that society can have on an individual’s personality. But it fit with the case rather well.” Then he held up the earbud. “Do you want to listen to it?” he asked.

Prentiss just stood there for a moment, thinking about it, before deciding. “Okay, sure.” she said, sitting down next to him.

She put an earbud in as he restarted the song. It started out with the sound of a heart beating, before starting in with the rest of the instruments.

“Somewhere in the end of all this hate” 

A woman’s voice started, low and rough. She recognized it as the voice of the band’s lead singer, Ari Ross.

 

“There's a light ahead  
That shines into this grave that's in the end of all this pain

In the night ahead there's a light upon this

 

A second voice joined Ari’s for the chorus - that of Kat Simms, the band’s bass guitarist.

House on a hill  
The living, living still  
Their intention is to kill and they will, they will  
But the children are doing fine  
I think about them all the time  
Until they drink the wine and they will, they will, they will

Somewhere in the end we're all insane  
To think that light ahead can save us from this  
Grave that's in the end of all this pain

In the night ahead there's a light upon this  
House on a hill  
The living, living still  
Their intention is to kill and they will, they will  
But the children are doing fine  
I think about them all the time  
Until they drink the wine and they will, they will, they will

I am not afraid  
I won't burn out in this place  
My intention is to fade and I will, I will

In this house on a hill  
The dead are living still  
Their intention is to kill and they will, they will  
Keep your children safe inside  
Out of pocket, out of mind  
Until they drink the wine and they will, they will, they will”

 

Once the song faded out, she pulled the earbud out, handing it back to Reid. “That was… not Mozart.” she said jokingly - even though she was slightly shocked that that was the kind of music that the bookish Dr. Reid listened to.

Reid laughed. “Or Beethoven.” he added, and they laughed again.

“Seriously, though.” Prentiss said. “That was amazing. Have you been to any of their concerts?”

Reid paled, and if Emily hadn’t been so close she would have missed it. “What, you mean the band’s?” he asked, and she nodded. “Um, yeah. Yeah, I’ve been to one or two” he lied.

“They’re really good.” she said, getting up to go back to where she had been sitting before. “I’ve been to one of their concerts before, but I’ve been wanting to go to another one for awhile..”

 

He just gave her a little half smile, saying, “Yeah, maybe you should.” Before putting his earbuds back in and looking out the window.

8888

Their next case took them to upstate New York, and was solved in a number of days - which meant that Reid was able to convince Hotch to let him stay behind while the rest of the team flew back to Quantico.

That night, once he had said goodbye to the team, he headed for the rental car that Garcia had set aside for him - he would have to remember to thank her once he got back - and drove to the hotel that Finn had told him about - the Albany Morgan State House Inn. The man in question was waiting outside of the hotel for him, and they did that awkward man-hug thing before Finn brought him upstairs.

The band had paid for three rooms on the top floor of the hotel, under aliases - Amanda Richards, Kaylee Seds, Fred Ramirez, Leo Valdez, and George Getz. Luckily, no one had recognized them - as of yet. They had done their absolute best to keep a low profile, but Ariel had been depressed lately, and so they had decided to forgo their usual attempts at stealth in order to get Reid there. Although they still managed to keep a low profile, thankfully.

But even if they had managed to get on someone’s radar, it was worth it to see Ariel’s face light up when she opened up the door to her hotel room to find Spencer waiting on the other side.


	13. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place about two months after the last one.

Reid’s P.O.V.

The team had decided to go out to a bar for what they all referred to as “team bonding” - basically just going out and getting drunk. I would’ve preferred to have stayed in with Ariel, but Morgan had convinced me otherwise. Besides, she had apparently already made plans to do the same thing with the band. Although, I wasn’t sure why they would possibly need to bond - they had just been together 24/7 for six months, after all.

Either way I was starting to really regret it now, especially since Prentiss wouldn’t leave me alone.

“Oh, come on, Reid.” she kept saying. “Let loose a bit. Just because your wife isn't here right now doesn't mean you can't have fun.”

I knew that she didn’t mean anything by it, but it was at this point that I was really starting to regret just letting Emily Prentiss know about Ariel as soon as she joined. I knew that she would have noticed the ring anyway, but at times like this it could still be annoying. I almost missed the anonymity that came with everyone thinking that I was no more than a bookworm.

“Um, no thanks.” I kept telling her. “I think I’m good.”

I was just about to get up and leave when Morgan came up between us. I could’ve sighed in relief, thinking that Morgan had come to save me from her relentless nagging.

“Hey kid, I'm gonna hit the bar.” he said, and I deflated. “You wanna come with?”

I was about to get mad at Morgan for not telling her off, until he gave me a quick wink. He had something up his sleeve - I just wasn't sure that I wanted to know what. 

“Yeah, sure.” I told him. We were halfway to the bar when I heard a laugh. 

A very familiar laugh.

I looked over in the direction of the bar and smiled. There, with her back to me, was none other than my Ari-bear. She didn’t look much like Ariel right then, though. Instead, she was dressed slightly more like Ari in ripped jeans, a black open-backed top, and red heels that were at least five inches tall.

8888

Prentiss’s P.O.V.

It wasn't long after my conversation with Reid that I began to feel bad about what I had said. So I decided to try and find him. I went over to JJ first, who was over playing darts with a couple of guys. “Hey JJ, have you seen Reid anywhere?” I asked her. She threw another bulls-eye, before turning to look at the tables in the corner. “He was over there earlier…” she mused. “But I don’t see him anymore, sorry. Maybe the others know where he is?”

I thanked her, then headed over to the table where I had left the rest of the team. Morgan had just gone to dance with a couple of girls, leaving Garcia, Hotch, and Haley sitting there.

“Have any of you guys seen Reid?” I asked them. Hotch and Haley shook their heads no, but Garcia nodded.

“I see him.” she reported, although she looked slightly worried. “He's out on the floor with…” then she broke into a relieved smile. “Ariel! Oh, I didn't know that she was back in town!”

I looked towards the floor eagerly - I had yet to see Ariel Reid at all. Needless to say, I was shocked by what I saw. The entire time that I had been hearing about Reid’s wife, I had pictured someone a lot like him - shy, geeky, but adorable in a ‘younger sibling’ kind of way.

The woman who was currently out on the floor was not like that at all. She was at least three or four inches shorter than Reid, if not more, with long, curly chocolate brown hair and a row of flowers tattooed down each of her arms. She wore a black open-backed top with ripped jeans and red heels - so the height difference between the two was actually closer to seven or eight inches. They were dancing just a few feet away from Morgan, and as we watched, the woman turned to face Reid, snaking her arms around his neck for a kiss which he was more than willing to return.

I was shocked. “That’s Reid’s wife?” JJ and Garcia nodded, and then all of a sudden another woman came up to the table.

“Hey guys.” she said, exchanging hellos with the team. “I see Derek found himself a honey.” She gestured to the dance floor. “Or three.”

“And our sweet genius is with his honey, too.” Garcia said, sighing happily.

“Hold on.” I said, “I’m lost. Who exactly are you?” I asked, looking at the girl. Her looks were definitely out there. She seemed familiar though, even though I had no idea why. Her short fuschia hair was pulled into little braided pigtails, with her bangs hanging in her face. She wore a military green flowy skirt that fell to just above her knees, with a tight white shirt underneath a studded leather jacket, and combat boots laced up to her calves.

She looked at me then like she knew who I was. “Hey, you’re Elle, right?” she asked. “I’m Katerina Simmons - sister of the bride over there.” she nodded over in the direction of the dance floor, where Reid was still out with his wife.

“Uh, no, actually.” I said. “I’m Emily. Emily Prentiss.” 

She looked embarrassed before laughing it off. “Sorry,” she said. “My bad.”

“Why didn’t you let me know that you were back in town?” Garcia said, sounding disappointed.

“Because we just got back, silly.” the new woman said easily, taking another swig of his beer. “Why?” she asked, teasing. “Did you miss me?”

Garcia nodded, even though she looked slightly disappointed. “Of course!” she said.

Katerina just laughed. “No need to lie, Penny.” she said, winking at the other woman. “You wanted to see Gabe, didn't you?” she asked. 

Garcia blushed, but didn't deny it. “Okay, maybe I wanted to see him a little.” she admitted. “But can you blame me?”

I stopped listening to them when Reid and his wife approached the table, quickly being drawn into hugs by the other team members, and I took the extra opportunity to examine the woman. There was something familiar about her as well, although I still couldn’t place where I had seen her before. 

“And you must be Emily Prentiss.” Ariel said, as she made her way around the table to me. “Spence has told me a lot about you.”

I was about to say something to her when JJ came back over to the table “Hey guys, sorry to cut the night short, but we’ve got a case.” 

“Alright.” Hotch said, giving Haley a kiss on the forehead before getting up from his chair. “Meeting in the conference room in 20 minutes. And can someone please get Morgan off of the dance floor?”

I laughed as everyone gave similar looks of ‘nope-I’m-not-doing-it’, before Katerina sighed, getting up from her chair. “I’ll get him.” she said, rolling her eyes as she headed out onto the floor.

“Try not to rough him up too much!” Ariel called out, laughing as her friend responded with a simple gesture. 

Ariel sighed, giving Reid a kiss before turning to me. “Here,” she said, grabbing my purse and pulling out my phone before I could even say anything, and handing me hers in exchange. “Give me your number, and I’ll give you mine, and we’ll talk, alright? I’d love to get to know you more - the team is a huge part of Spence’s life, so it’s a huge part of mine, too.” she said in explanation, before handing my phone back to me and pocketing hers. Then Katerina comes back, dragging Morgan along behind her, and soon we were all laughing as Reid teased Morgan relentlessly about being literally dragged by a woman half his size.

8888

The team finally gathered at the BAU, with Gideon meeting them there, saying that he had been at the Smithsonian. They were only there for a bit - long enough to get the details of the case and theorize on the profile for a few minutes, but that was it. 

8888

Spencer’s P.O.V.

I called Ariel from my desk after we were done in the conference room - I had just stopped there to grab my go-bag before heading to the plane.

“Hey,” I said as soon as she picked up. I could hear music blaring in the background, along with a lot of laughter and people talking, so I assumed that they still had yet to leave the bar.

“Hey, babe.” she shouted, and I winced as I pulled the phone away from my ear. “What’s up?”

“We’ve got a case down in Georgia.” I told her once it was safe for me to put the phone next to my ear. 

Ariel whined, “Really? But we just got back.” 

“Honey, are you drunk?” I asked her, worried. 

‘What? No.” she denied. “I haven’t had a drop all night.

“Yes, you are.” I said as I headed for the elevators with Morgan walking alongside me. Her whining about my work was what tipped me off. I knew that she hated my having to leave all of the time, but she also knew that I was saving lives. So the only time that she ever really brought it up was when she was sick, exhausted, or inebriated.

“Whatever.” she said - now she sounded angry. “I just can’t believe that you’re leaving. We literally just got back in town, and I wanted to tell you something.”

I sighed. “Ariel, I’m sorry. But you know that it can’t be helped. And I promise, as soon as we get back, I’m all yours.” Morgan and I got into the elevator, and he held the door for Prentiss and JJ while I said, “And then you can tell me whatever it is, alright? I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the beginning of the heartbreak, and I am so, so sorry you guys. It gets worse before it gets better. Unfortunately for me - but luckily for you - I’m still not that good at writing the angsty stuff, so there’s not too much of that… at least I don’t think there is!


	14. Where there's tears, there's hope

Ariel’s P.O.V.

I was worried. 

Several days had passed since the last time I had spoken with Spencer on the phone. While normally that wouldn’t have bothered me that much, he hadn’t texted me even once since he left. Even though Spence wasn’t a fan of texting, he would still text me if he couldn’t get away from a case long enough to call.

Which meant something had happened, and I wasn’t going to like it at all.

8888

Spencer’s P.O.V.

I was dying. 

There was no other plausible explanation for the sheer amount of pain that I was feeling until the door opened and Tobias Hankel walked into the room again, and I remembered what had happened.

Flying to Georgia.

Investigating the case.

Going to talk to the Hankel family, and then realizing that Tobias Hankel was the UnSub.

Splitting up with JJ, and then… my eyes widened as it all came back to me. The last thing that I remembered was Tobias shoving a needle in my arm, and my eyes went wide at the thought of possibly ending up addicted to the drug. 

“Tobias,” I asked, and the sound of my own voice surprised me. It was hoarse from disuse, and I started to wonder…

“Tobias, how long have I been here?” I asked, starting to worry about my wife. Not only because I knew she would be worrying about me, but because I knew that there was a chance I might never see her again. I was wondering what she had wanted to tell me before we left, knowing that I might never have a chance to find out.

“Two days now… I think.” he said, as he rolled up my sleeve again, preparing to put another needle into my arm. 

I teared up slightly at the sight of it, knowing that I was acting childish, but I really didn’t care anymore. I was scared and tired, and the only thing that I wanted right now was to see my wife again. “No, please,” I begged. “I don’t want it…” my eyes rolled up in my head as Tobias injected me with the drug. “Ariel…” I whispered before everything went black.

8888

Three days had passed since I had last talked to Spence, and I couldn’t take it anymore. The band was heading out to New York City in a few hours to do a photo shoot to promote our next album, but before we left, I needed to know that my husband was okay. I tried calling him one last time, but when he didn’t answer, I headed to the BAU, thinking that maybe Garcia would be able to tell me something.

But once I got to her office, the technical goddess was nowhere to be seen. Confused, I left her office and went to check the bullpen and the break room, hoping that she would be in there, but the only person there that I recognized was Anderson.

“Mrs. Reid!” he said, sounding surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“Have you seen Penelope anywhere?” I asked him. “I need to talk to her.”

He looked anxious for a moment like he knew something that I wasn’t supposed to. “She’s not here - she was called down to Georgia to help the team with their current case.”

Needless to say, that set alarm bells ringing. Spencer wasn’t allowed to tell me much about their cases, but from what he had told me in the past, I knew that Penelope stayed here, at Quantico, unless something was seriously wrong. “Alright.” I told him, trying to keep myself calm, even though the only thing that I wanted to do was get on the next plane to Georgia. “Thank you.”

8888

Spencer’s P.O.V.

The rare moments when I was fully conscious were full of pain and remembrance. There were flashes of a lot of my childhood, but even more moments of Ariel and I. 

8888

Ariel’s P.O.V.

We were on the plane to New York, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong. I turned to Kat, telling her that I would be right back, before going to the plane’s bathroom. I knew that I wasn’t technically supposed to be making phone calls on the plane, but I had called Spencer over and over again while we were waiting at the airport, and now I was ready to call in the big guns.

“Gideon.” the voice on the other end of the line said, and I took a deep breath.

“Gideon?” I asked, my voice shaking slightly. “It’s Ariel - Spencer’s wife.”

“What can I do for you?” he asked, not even bothering with a ‘hello’. 

“Cut the crap,” I told him sharply, my voice getting stronger due to my anger. “That’s what you can do. I know something’s gone wrong, Spencer hasn’t picked up his phone for days, and he isn’t answering any of my texts either. So, I’ll tell you what you can do for me - you can tell me what the hell has happened to my husband.”

“Calm down, Mrs. Reid.” the older agent said firmly. “I promise, Dr. Reid is fine. He’s just undercover at the moment, which is why he hasn’t been able to answer his phone.”

“So you promise that he is fine?” I asked him, stressing the word. “You promise that he is safe?”

Gideon sighed, before saying, “I promise you that he is safe.”

“Alright,” I told him, even though I still wasn’t completely convinced. “I’m trusting you.”

8888

Gideon’s P.O.V.

As soon as I flipped my phone shut, I heard Hotch speak up.

“Why did you lie to her?” he asked me, his normally stern face showing the slightest hint of emotion. “You should have told her the truth, Jason.”

“And risk her panicking and losing hope?” I asked him, giving a grim smile. “If I was her, I’d rather have false hope than none at all.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N~ Hello! So here we have the ending of Revelations, but the beginning of the struggle with Reid and Dilaudid. However, I hated how the show wrote Spencer with his addiction because it could have been stopped before things got too bad. So here’s my take on what should have happened.

Ariel’s P.O.V.

I was being plucked and primped by the makeup ladies for Undiscovered Nemesis’ photo shoot when my phone rang. I leapt out of my chair, ignoring the cries of the makeup and hair people as I grabbed my phone from where it sat charging.

“Hello?” I asked breathlessly, clinging to the tiny bit of hope that I still had that my husband was on the other end. Normally I would have been a lot more composed, especially when I was in my ‘Ari Ross’ persona, but I had stopped caring about that after almost six days of no contact from my husband. Not that anyone at the shoot would comment, anyway. Our producer had told them all that I had a close friend in the hospital, and that I was desperately waiting for news on their condition.

“Hey, Ari-bear.” my husband’s voice rasped out, and I collapsed into a heap on the floor, tears rolling down my face just from hearing his voice.

People began to swarm around, yelling for help, but all I could make out was indistinct murmuring over the sound of my Spencer’s voice.

“Don’t you,” I had to pause for a second to swallow the lump in my throat before I could continue. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again, you hear me?”

Spencer laughed, and my heart skipped a beat at hearing that sound that I never thought I would hear again. “Yes, ma’am.” he told me. “When are you getting home?”

“I should be home within a day or two.” I told him.

“Alright.” he sighed. “I love you.” 

“Love you too.” I whispered, before flipping my phone shut. I looked up at the band members gathered there, and finally, I smiled. “He’s okay.” That was when it really hit me. “He’s really okay.”

And yet, something still didn’t feel right.

The entire group - Finn, Lee, Kat, and Gabe - wrapped themselves around me, and I could hear the whispering gossip even through my happiness. I knew what they were whispering about, though - Undiscovered Nemesis was showing emotion. Usually, we were always cool and collected, with a lot of snarky attitude thrown in. But never this openly emotional, or at least not open with the negative ones.

“What is the hold up over here?” the photographer shouted, storming over with his camera in his hands. “I am waiting to make you people beautiful!”

The rest of the band backed away, except for Kat, who kept her arm around my shoulder. Finn walked over and clapped the photographer on the shoulder. “Sorry, man.” he said. “We just needed a moment or two.”

I walked back over to the makeup table, feeling completely embarrassed when I saw the mascara tracks that were running down my face.

The photographer came to stand behind me just as I reached for the makeup remover.

“Stop!” he cried out, practically tearing the bottle from my hands. “What are you doing?” he asked me, sounding almost scandalized.

“Fixing my makeup.” I told him.

He shook his head, giving me a look that said I had no idea what I was doing. “Don’t. Don’t you dare.” he grabbed me by the shoulders, steering me towards the set. “And… you!” he said, pointing to Finn. “Come here.” Finn complied, even though he looked completely confused.

“Right.” the photographer said, pushing us in front of the background - a post-apocalyptic scene complete with smoldering fires and smoke filling the air. “I want you to act like you are in love - like he just told you the most heartbreaking news ever, but that you still love him anyway.”

Finn blanched, but I just got mad. “Are you insane?” I shouted at him. “There’s no way in hell that I’m going to do that!” Finn was backing away slowly, knowing better than to be near me when I lost my temper, but the idiot photographer just kept coming closer, snapping picture after picture. Kat was slowly moving over, and I knew that she was waiting for me to snap.

Finally, I lost it completely. “What the damn hell are you doing?” I yelled, going to swing at him, but Kat stopped me.

“Just… wait, chickadee.” she said quietly. “Give the man a second to explain.” Then she glared at the man in question. “But he’d better do it fast, or else I might be the one to attack.”

“I wanted to get her angry.” the photographer admitted quickly. “Ari Ross shouldn’t weep - she doesn’t weep. But tears of anger, those are acceptable.”

“What on earth are you talking about?” I asked him, but he didn’t answer. Instead, he gestured to the screens behind him, where the last pictures that he had taken were displayed.

My breath caught in my throat as I looked at the pictures. I barely recognized myself in them. Instead, I saw an angry goddess, dressed in blood red lace and biker leathers. I recognized the clothes, though - black ripped jeans, studded high-heel boots, black fingerless gloves that were laced up to the elbows, a maroon lace crop top and a black leather jacket over it - but not much else. The woman's face was contorted with rage and anguish, and the mascara lines on her cheeks only added to the effect. Her hand was raised in the picture, about to come down on the poor photographer, but Kat was holding her back. She was nearly unrecognizable as well. Her lips were painted black, and so were her eyes, making her hair pop even more than it usually did. She wore a black trench coat over top of a camouflage-print bralette, with dark ripped jeans and combat boots that laced up to her knees. She looked like a militarized avenging angel, what with the look of fury on her face as she held me back.

“Wow,” I said, nearly speechless. “Just, wow.”

The photographer smiled nervously, and I wondered if he was still afraid that I’d flip out on him again. “You like it?” he asked, and I nodded.

“I love it.” I told him.

8888

I was opening the door to the apartment that my husband and I shared around thirty-six hours after leaving the photo shoot. 

“Spencer?” I called out as I came through the door. It was only one in the afternoon, but I thought I'd see if he was home anyway. “I’m home!”

I was surprised when there was actually an answer - I heard something slamming shut, and then there was silence for a moment before Spencer appeared in the hallway. I couldn’t help but cry out when I saw him, and I ran over, grabbing onto his shoulders.

“What the hell happened?” I asked as I looked him over. He was a wreck - he looked like he hadn’t shaved for at least a week, his hair was hanging in his face, limp and greasy, and he was wearing a long sleeve t-shirt and sweatpants that looked like he had pulled them out of the garbage.

“Nothing.” he muttered, pushing me off of him. “I’m fine.”

I looked at him in shock as I hit the wall behind me, but he didn’t even react - that was what really worried me. Usually if he knocked into anyone, even accidentally, he would start apologizing like crazy. Now he didn’t even look to see if I was okay. 

“No, you’re not.” I told him, shoving him back. I felt horrible about it as soon as I did, though, because he nearly doubled over in pain. “Oh god,” I said, starting to panic. “Okay... sit down, shirt off.” I said, trying to put myself into a detached frame of mind - I knew that I wouldn’t be able to help Spence if I was too busy freaking out over his injuries.

Luckily he listened to me - even though Spence was a beanpole, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to move him if he didn’t want me to. He sat down at the dining room table and pulled the long sleeved shirt over his head. 

“Oh my god, I am going to kill Gideon.” I said, unable to think of anything else that I could say. “Spencer… what happened to you?”

His torso was covered in bruises, a whole spectrum of reds, browns, purples, blues, yellows, and greens.

He looked at me in confusion. “What? Why, what happened with Gideon?” he asked. I hesitated for a second before telling him, “Nothing.” I didn't want to lie to him, but I also knew how Spence idolized the man. I wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize that, no matter how much Gideon deserved to be knocked down a few pegs.

Then I noticed the marks in the crook of his elbow, and I got mad. 

“Spencer Reid, you’d better have a damn good explanation for why there are track marks on your arms.” I told him.

He sighed, thinking about it for a second before answering me. “The last UnSub kidnapped me.” he said softly, his voice breaking a bit. “He… he injected me with Dilaudid.” He hung his head, barely looking at me. “I - I got addicted, Ariel.”

My anger faded away almost instantly, and I practically threw myself at my husband. “Oh, Spence…” I sighed, but then something occurred to me. “You’ve still been shooting up, haven’t you?” I asked him, and he gave an almost imperceptible nod. That’s when my anger came back, full force.

“Damn it, Spencer!” I yelled, then took a breath. Yelling wasn’t going to solve anything. “It’s one thing for you to be put in circumstances beyond your control. But it’s a completely different thing for you to keep making things worse for yourself. There’s not just you to think about here, for god’s sake!” I pressed my hands to my stomach, hoping that what I was about to say would shock him enough that I would be able to get through to my drug-addled genius. “Spencer, I’m telling you this now, because damn it, I’m not going to put any one of us through you on drugs. I’m pregnant, Spence, and I swear to god if you don’t get help, I will walk out of that door and you will never see me or our baby ever again.”

My husband looked at me with his mouth hanging wide open, and if the circumstances were different I would’ve been laughing at how ridiculous he looked. “You don’t mean that.” he said, completely ignoring what I had just told him. I wasn’t sure if that just made me angrier or more upset, but either way, I was just about ready to kick his ass.

But instead of breaking down like I wanted to, I just looked at him and let my tears run down my face, not even bothering to try and wipe them away. “Try me.” I dared. “I love you, Spencer. Which is why I’m not going to stand here and watch you fucking self-destruct.”

I went to walk past him then, but he grabbed me around the waist. “Spencer, let go of me.” I told him.

“Please,” he said, and I could feel the lump forming in my throat just from how heartbroken he sounded. “Don’t leave me.”

I rolled my eyes as I turned around to look at him. “I’m not leaving you, you moron.” I said, teasing him slightly - it was my way of letting him know that things would eventually be okay between us. I was still mad at him - mad wasn’t even the right word. I was absolutely, completely, furious with him, but I was even madder at someone else. “I just have some errands to run, and I need some time to calm down.” 

“Okay.” Spencer said, a bit too eagerly for my tastes. “I have the next week off, so we can spend time together when you get back, right?” he asked, and then his eyes flickered down to my belly. “And maybe then we can talk about…” he didn’t say the last word, but made little rocking gestures with his arms instead, and my heart nearly melted at the cuteness.

“Damn hormones.” I muttered under my breath, before smiling at him. “Of course we can.” I said patiently. “After I get home.”

I headed for the door as fast as I could, hoping that I wasn’t forgetting anything… then I realized that I was. “Spencer?” I asked.

“Yeah?”

“Do you have any vials of that stuff in this apartment?” I asked him slowly, folding my arms over my chest as I turned to stare at him.

He hesitated.

8888

Spencer’s P.O.V.

I didn’t know what to say to Ariel. I wanted to keep the Dilaudid, but at the same time, I didn’t want to lose her… or our baby, for that matter. I had just learned about it, but I already knew that I wanted to be a part of its life.

But I didn’t know what to do. The call of the drugs was strong, but I knew that there was no way that Ariel would stay if I continued with the drugs. 

So I told her the truth.

8888

Ariel’s P.O.V.

“Yeah.” he admitted.

“Go get them.” I told him, and he nodded before leaving the dining room. I heard him searching through a drawer for a minute before he came back with two little vials in his hands.

As soon as he handed them to me, I carried them over to the sink and poured both vials down the drain, then dumped the containers into the trash. When I was done, I went over and kissed my husband on the cheek, pulling him in for a hug as well. “I love you.” I told him softly.

“Even with all of this?” he asked, and I would’ve laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of the question if I didn’t know him so well. 

“Of course, stupid.” I told him. “For better or for worse, remember?”

8888

I felt my breath hitch as I walked into the BAU bullpen, unsure of what to do next. 

Luckily, things were made easier for me when JJ looked up from where she was sitting talking with Morgan and the new girl - Emily.

“Ariel!” JJ said frantically, hurrying over to me. “How’s Spencer doing?” she asked.

“I really don’t know.” I told her honestly, glad to take a moment to collect myself before doing what I came here to do. “He’s… he’s in bad shape.” I admitted, then tried to change the subject. “Have any of you seen Gideon?” I asked. “I need to talk to him.”

The agents looked at each other for a minute, before Emily answered me. “Yeah, he’s… up in his office. Why?”

But I was already heading up the stairs, deciding to stop in and talk to Hotch before going to see Gideon. He was without a doubt the most logical member of the team - at least, he was when Spencer wasn’t there.

Hotch looked up from the paperwork that he was doing and looked surprised to see me there. “Mrs. Reid.” he said, getting up from his chair. “What are you doing here?”

“How many times do I have to tell you, Agent Hotchner.” I said. “Call me Ariel.”

He nodded and gave a small smile. “As long as you call me Hotch. Reid should be at home - is there something that you needed”

I decided to just be honest with him. “I’m here to possibly castrate Jason Gideon.” I told him, leaning against the doorway. “Is that alright with you?” 

Hotch gave me a Look before apparently deciding that I was kidding, because instead of stopping me, he gave a little smile and said, “Just don’t hurt him too badly, alright?”

I gave him a Look of my own before replying. “No promises.” and heading to the next office over.

I thought about knocking for a second, before deciding against it. I barged into the room then, and let the door slam shut behind me. Gideon didn’t even bother to look up.

“Whaddya want, Hotch?” he asked, but I didn’t correct him, instead waiting for him to look up. When he finally did, he arched an eyebrow at me before sitting back in his chair. “Mrs. Reid.” he said. “What can I do for you?”

“You can tell me why the hell you lied to me.” I said. I knew that I sounded childish for saying it, but I didn’t care. He didn’t answer, choosing to just stare at me instead. “You told me that Spencer was undercover, that he was safe. Then, I get home and find him bruised and beaten, and barely able to stand!” I didn’t mention the drugs, knowing that if the Bureau found out, Spencer would be kicked out in a heartbeat.

“I don’t know what you expect me to say -” he started, and I cut him off. 

“You don’t know?” I said, my voice getting louder and louder as my irritation built. This was ridiculous. I was irritated - scratch that, I was pissed off - worried, and I could feel the morning sickness starting to rear its ugly head - because no matter what they said, morning sickness wasn’t only in the mornings. “How about that you’re sorry, to start. That you’re sorry that you lied to me, that you knew my husband was in danger, that you knew there was a chance that he was never coming home, but you didn’t give a damn.”

“I could tell you that.” he admitted. “But I’m not going to.”

I smiled at him, although I was pretty sure that it looked more like I was baring my teeth. “I’m only going to tell you this once, Gideon.” I said, my voice low. “Don’t ever lie to me about him. Ever.”

And with that, I left the BAU to head home.


End file.
